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enkelimagnus · 5 years ago

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A Winx Club Shadowhunters AU - Clizzy, Malec & others

Her name is Clary Fairchild, and she’s an entirely normal 19-year-old human girl.

Except she isn’t. That comes at a complete surprise just as she’s about to die a horrible death at the hands of a yellow ogre. That’s just what she gets for trying to save Isabelle, a fairy Princess from the planet Solaria.

Her life is changed forever as she embarks on a journey that will give her more than she could ever hope for.

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Event - On AO3

Amber Fairchild let her fingers trace over the black smudgy lines of her daughter’s charcoal drawing of a landscape of Gardenia. In particular, it was a drone-view of the area where the Fairchilds’ house was located.

Behind it, on the cork board, was pinned another charcoal drawing, these times of fairies. Amber could only see two but she knew there were 3. They were quite beautiful. Clary was getting better at facial expressions.

On the drawing desk were a couple of more sheets of paper. Two versions of the same castle, a fairytale-worthy structure, complete with thin flags flowing over the towers, from different views. And a portrait of a woman. The woman strangely looked like Clary. Like a family resemblance.

Amber wondered if Clary was drawing what she thought her birthparents looked like. Amber and William Fairchild had never hidden the fact that Clary was adopted from her. It had never seemed to be an issue for Clary, but maybe she was starting to want to know more.

That was knowledge that the Fairchilds didn’t have. William had found Clary in a house fire, eighteen years ago.

Clary had turned nineteen less than a week ago.

It was a bit of a shock, for Amber. Her baby was all grown up now. She was going to start her second year at the prestigious Gardenia Academy of Art in a couple of weeks, and she was growing into a fierce and wonderful young lady.

Amber stepped over the clothing and the books that were scattered over the floor. Clary was maybe an adult now, but she was still a messy teenager.

"Wake up, sleepy head!" Amber called, slightly louder than she usually would. "The sun’s been up for ages!"

The dog that they owned, a fawn-and-white one-year-old whippet named Kiko that was surprisingly human some days, was napping in his basket next to the bed.

Clary shifted in her bed, only her red hair visible in between her pillow and the duvet.

"Five more minutes, Mom," she grumbled and buried her face impossibly further into the pillow. Amber smiled widely and moved a little closer.

"You’re late, Clary!" She said softly, in a sing-song voice, right next to her daughter’s face.

There was a second-long beat, during which Clary put two and two together and suddenly she bolted out of bed. "FUCK!" She cursed loudly as she ran around the room. "How the fuck did I miss my alarm?"

Amber winced at the curses. Yes, they had allowed uncensored swearing to Clary on her 18th birthday, but that didn’t mean it was easy to get used to.

"It’s the first day of the school year, none of my things are ready, what the fuck was I thinki-" Clary stopped, one leg down her jeans and looked up.

"Hang on a sec," she said softly, before turning towards her mother. "YOU. That’s SO not funny," she grumbled.

Amber chuckled. School was not starting again before a couple of weeks. "You fell for it, didn’t you?" She crossed her arms.

Clary finished putting on her black croptop and ripped jeans, before falling bad onto the bed dramatically. "I don’t care. I’m going back to bed."

Amber sighed. "It’s 9am. Late enough."

Clary huffed and slid under her duvet again. Kiko jumped onto the bed and snuggled against her.

Amber looked at her softly. "You should try going to bed earlier, you know. You were up really late last night." William and her had gone to bed relatively late, and they had seen the light under the door of her bedroom.

"I was reading..." Clary sighed.

Amber grabbed the book she was pointing at from the floor. The cover had a fairy on it, just like Clary’s drawings. She sighed. This was a little more mature and scientific, if there was such thing as the scientific study of fairies.

""Fairies: Myth or Reality?"" She read out, and huffed. "Urgh, don’t you ever get tired of these silly things?" She asked softly.

Clary shook her head. "I don’t. I like them."

Amber nodded. "Alright then. Who am I to call them silly if you care about them so much?"

Clary sat up on her bed. With her messy hair and her tired look, she still looked like a child to Amber. Her smile was still as contagious.

"Thanks, Mom," she said softly.

Amber waved it off. "Oh, It’s nothing, darling. Now, come get coffee."

--------------

Since she’d woken up early, Clary guessed she got to be doing some stuff. She’d decided to take Kiko on a trip to the park. The park allowed for dogs to be unleashed, as long as people were careful.

It was Clary and Kiko’s favorite place to go. Usually, Clary would run around and play for a while, before sitting down by her favorite tree and drawing while Kiko either went to run around or laid by her feet.

Clary rode her bike, with Kiko secured in a basket, to the park, where she settled at her usual spot. She put her back against the tree and grabbed Kiko’s toy.

After a few rounds of throwing and running and playing, she decided to sit down. Kiko still seemed to have a bunch of energy so she let him go play."Go on Kiko, but stick around, alright?" She called.

She sat down on the grass and grabbed her sketchpad. She barely had time to get drawing that Kiko came back, howling, absolutely terrified.

"What’s the matter Kiko?" Clary asked, gently patting the terrified animal. She stood up, looking towards the part of the park Kiko had come running from.

It was a deeper, wilder part, where people went a little more rarely. She swallowed and stepped forward, grabbing the pepper spray from her bag and walking into the bushes.

Kiko followed, whining at her feet, almost trying to tell her not to come. Clary stopped next to a clearing, as strange noises were coming from it.

From behind the tree, Clary saw something that she couldn’t really explain.

It was a woman. More exactly, it was the most beautiful woman Clary had ever seen. Her tan skin radiated with a glow that definitely couldn’t come from only body glitter. Clary swallowed. She wore shorts and a one-shoulder crop top, made of a glittery golden orange material, that hugged her curves perfectly. She had matching heeled boots. Her dark hair was parted into two low pigtails, held with golden orange bands.

Clary’s eyes opened wider. From the woman’s shoulder blades sprouted translucent blue wings. They were delicate and beautiful, glittering gently with every motion of her body.

She was fighting, kicking at strange monsters. She had a cyan-blue scepter with a sun-shaped circle at the top, in her left hand, and Clary focused on that rather than the rest of the seriously wrong things happening in front of her.

"Rising Sun!" The woman shouted, and a blast of blinding golden light erupted from her right hand, sending one of the monsters tumbling down, screaming in pain, before it quickly disappeared in a pile of ash.

"Wow!" Clary heard herself say. She could feel the power that came from the woman. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. "Goodness, did you see that Kiko?" The dog was hiding, trembling, behind a log.

"Solar Wind!" This time, the wave of light was more diffuse, but it still was successful in burning away a number of the small monsters. It was... it was like the woman was doing spells. That and the wings... Clary felt a headache forming between her temples.

“I am warning you," the woman spoke out. Her voice was calmer than Clary’s would have been in the same situation. "Leave this realm now or you will feel the magical wrath of the Sun and Moon fairy!"

The yellow monster erupted in a loud laugh, that turned into an animalistic snarl, and then it charged. It started running, full speed, towards the relatively small - if unnaturally powerful - woman.

She put up a fight, but was violently shoved backwards. Clary saw her fly over a short distance and land painfully on the grassy ground.

"Oh my god!" Clary exclaimed.

The woman wasn’t getting up. She was laying very close to where Clary was still hidden, and she wasn’t getting up. She was trying, but the painful landing had cut off her breath and she was struggling to regain it.

"Your time is up fairy!" The monster shouted. It turned to the smaller monsters, red, ant-like creatures. "Take the scepter! Give me that scepter!"

The small creatures pounced. Clary almost screamed as they attacked the woman on the ground, holding her down and prying open her fingers to get the scepter out of her hand.

They ended up managing to get it from her when they used their paws to block out her eyes and mouth, keeping her from breathing and seeing. She instinctively let go of the scepter, and the monsters took advantage of that.

The yellow monster smirked as the scepter was given to him. "Not so strong now, are you?" He growled, and moved, aiming towards the fallen woman with the scepter.

Clary moved without thinking. She ran out from the trees and stood in front of the woman, standing tall and looking at the monster with a hiss. "Let her go!"

The monster raised its eyebrows. Yes, it had eyebrows. What the fuck?

"Get her!" It roared.

She saw the monsters coming at her. She felt the flame inside of her. It built from her heart to her fingertips, burning, pulsing, wanting to get out. And it did. She felt the flame leave her skin and radiate around her, and the monsters died as they touched it.

She blinked, her fingers tingling. One of the remaining monsters grabbed Kiko’s tail, making him yelp loudly. "Hands off Kiko!" Clary grabbed a branch and beat it off of him.

Well. She wasn’t that bad at self-defense.

A giant yellow hand wrapped around her wrists, pinning both of them in one crushing grip. She groaned loudly in pain and tried to get away.

She felt it again. With the pain crushing her wrists, came also the flame. It burnt again, from her heart onwards. She closed her eyes and felt it escape her body again.

The monster screamed in agony. Clary pried her eyes open, only to be blinded by a too-bright ray of light. She closed them again, but small light spots still danced behind her eyelids.

"Hey, that was... powerful," the woman said.

Clary opened her eyes again, and her vision was back to normal. She could already feel she would have a headache, and she felt absolutely exhausted, but she could see alright.

The woman, with her dark hair, her wings and her orange glittery clothing, was staring at her with awe. She had dark eyes that held a bright spark, her lips were painted red, and it looked like she’d sacrificed at least a dozen children to some dark deities for her beauty.

She walked closer to Clary and held out her hand, helping her to her feet. "Are you okay?" She asked softly. Her voice was even nicer when she wasn’t yelling.

Even if she was standing in shadows now, she was still glowing. ��The Sun and Moon Fairy . If that was true, the glowing would make sense.

"Yeah..." Clary managed to reply, mouth hanging open, trying to wrap her head around the situation. A stunning woman with wings, who referred to herself as a fairy, was holding her hand like it was something precious, after Clary had protected her from a monster.

Said monster got up from the ground then. The woman - the fairy - turned around. She planted her feet into the ground. "You want the scepter? Come and get it!" She taunted. A burst of golden light caught the monster square in the chest, sending him flying back.

Clary was about to shout at her to watch out for the remaining of the ant-like monsters but the woman was already moving. She snarled with effort, the entire scepter and her hands lighting up with the same gold light that seemed to envelop all her spells.

She jumped, a powerful, unnatural leap aided with her wings’ flying ability, twirled the scepter over her head at lightning speed and suddenly cut through the air.

All around her, following the path of the scepter, light erupted and monsters turned to ash.

She twirled the scepter one more time in her hands, this time more for a flourish, before winking at Clary. Clary swallowed.

"We will meet again, fairy!" The yellow beast warned, before disappearing in a beam of purple light.

A heaviness that Clary had not realized was in the air lifted with the creatures departure.

"Thank goodness," the woman exclaimed. She seemed genuinely relieved, even if she had demonstrated quite the abilities. "They’re gone at last!"

Clary was about to reply, ask questions, do something, but the woman faltered. She crumbled to the ground, and let go of the scepter.

Clary rushed to her side. "Hey are you alright?" She called out.

There was no reply. A bright light enveloped the woman’s unmoving body, and in the blink of an eye, her wings, her costume, and her pigtails were gone. Gone too was the glow that had seemed to radiate from her.

Her boots had changed to less practical heeled sandals, her crop top had changed shapes, with added cyan blue accessories and strings that wrapped around her waist. The shorts she’d been wearing became a skirt, long and flowing, with the same blue strings holding it to her waist.

The bands holding her hair parted were gone, it flowed free against the ground, and on her head rested something Clary recognized as a tiara, a cyan blue headband-like tiara that also had a sun-shaped circle at the back of her head, in the same shape as the top of the scepter.

Panicked, Clary looked around and realized the scepter was gone.

Fuck. She needed to call her parents.

-------------

Clary stared at the shredded pant leg of her jeans, toying with the straw in her lemonade glass. She hadn’t realized that the creatures had ruined it before she’d been home, with the woman laying on her bed, asleep.

She could hear her mom and dad’s hushed whispers. They were standing in the kitchen, and the kitchen was only a few feet away. They weren’t exactly stealthy.

"Clary," her father started, turning to her and speaking a bit louder. "I’m not sure I understand. Could you run that by me again?"

She sighed deeply, looking up at him and leaning back in her chair. "It’s not complicated. Kiko and I were in the park. He got spooked so I went to see what was going on. She was there, fighting creatures. They called her a fairy. She called herself a fairy."

William sighed. Clary loved her dad, but she knew he was a skeptic when it came to these things. Neither Amber nor William really believed in the supernatural, magical things that Clary believed in.

Clary was very different from her parents. Physically of course, since she was adopted. They were both brunettes, and there weren’t a redhead in their family. Her face was different, her stature was different.

But in their beliefs too. Clary had always like the idea that there was more to the world that the things she could see. She believed in magic, and in the things that went bump in the night.

"Hmm, I see," William mumbled.

"You believe me then?" Clary asked, even if she honestly had little hope that he did.

"No, I don’t! I think we should call the police and take this girl to a hospital."

It was a sensible offer but Clary opened her mouth to refuse. She didn’t have time to.

At that moment, a voice resounded in the room. "No, no please. Don’t tell anyone."

The woman - the fairy - was standing in the doorway to the bedrooms corridor. She looked a bit pale, but perfectly alright. She was still incredibly beautiful.

Amber immediately stood up straighter and walked to her. "How do you feel dear?" She asked softly. She guided her to sit down on the couch. The four of them all moved to the living room.

The fairy sat gracefully, at the age of the couch, back straight and ankles crossed elegantly.

"I’m all right," she said softly to Amber. She then turned to Clary. "Thank you for helping me out."

Clary shook her head. "Why else could I have done? Leave you passed out in the middle of the park?"

The fairy smiled gracefully. "Still. You were very kind to bring me to your home." She looked regal sitting there, in her fancy clothing and the tiara that she still wore. She was silent and elegant.

"I’m Clary," Clary said softly. "Clary Fairchild. And these are my parents. Amber and William Fairchild."

The woman nodded. "It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Isabelle. My friends call me Izzy." There was more to that, but Clary waved it away. They were strangers, after all.

"Can we drive you somewhere, Izzy?" William asked.

Clary almost glared at him. She could feel in his tone that he wanted Izzy out of their home as fast as possible. Now that she looked alright and awake, there was no reason for her to stay longer, right?

Izzy had a small chuckle. "That would be difficult. I come from a place that’s a bit far from here."

"Fairyland?" William huffed.

Izzy raised a perfectly styled eyebrow in his direction. "There’s no such thing. Maybe the Legendarium World would qualify, but that’s only where the Ancestral Fairies came from, not where they reside. I am from Solaria. Not Fairyland." Her voice was cold.

William opened his mouth and closed it right after. Clary’s head felt like it was spinning. She’d read nothing about the Ancestral Fairies or the Legendarium World. She’d never even heard of those before, in all her research about fairies.

"But you’re a fairy, right?"

Izzy turned to her and nodded, smile coming back to her lips. "I am. The Fairy of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. One day, I will be the Guardian Fairy of my Kingdom, Solaria."

So Guardian Fairies were a thing. Alright, that was something that Clary understood.

"How did you end up on Earth?" Clary asked curiously.

"I was trying to get to Alfea castle in the realm of Magix... It’s one of the magical dimensions, and Alfea is the College for Fairies. It’s the best school out there for fairies."

Clary could almost physically feel the skepticism and annoyance coming from behind her but sighed.

"Those creatures attacked me and I was forced to land here, on your planet," Izzy continued, before she turned to Amber and William. "Your daughter saved my life. I had never seen instinctive magic quite like that."

Clary shook her head. "I... I don’t know what happened. It all went so fast and the flame..."

"It was similar to the fire magic I’ve seen before," Izzy pointed out. "And you don’t actually need to know how. Instinctive magic exists in all of us magical beings, may we be Fairies or not."

William sighed and looked at both Clary and Izzy. "I don’t... I don’t understand what’s going on."

Amber shook her head. "I don’t understand either. But this..."

"It could be some sort of scheme. Acting."

Izzy stood up gracefully. She slid the blue ring she was wearing off of her finger, and it suddenly changed shapes. She was now holding the scepter that the monsters had been trying so hard to get.

Clary exhaled. Now she didn’t have to break it to her than she had lost her precious scepter.

Izzy planted the scepter firmly in front of her and put her two hands on it, one above the other. She closed her eyes for a moment.

Amber gasped as a bright ball of light came out of the sun-shaped circle at the top of the scepter. It danced around the living room, moving between the four of them with elegance, following motions of Izzy’s fingers.

"Can you believe me now?" She asked softly.

Amber looked over at her. "I think I do."

William stayed silent.

---------------

Clary sat down heavily on her bed. It felt like so much had happened since she’d left it, this every morning.

Now, there was a fairy in her bedroom. She wasn’t as tall as Clary would have imagined a fairy would be. Actually, Clary and her were about the same height. The fairy was maybe a bit smaller even, was she to take off her heels.

Said fairy, Izzy, was currently looking around Clary’s room. She was especially focused on the drawing table and the drawings that Clary had pinned on the corkboard. She reached up and gently touched the one with the fairies.

“Did you draw these?" She asked, tone curious, as she turned around and looked at Clary. Her eyes were shining.

"Yes. I’m an art student.”

“That’s amazing! And so are those drawings!” Izzy exclaimed. There was a hint of black from the charcoal on her fingertips as she pulled her hand back. “I’m a student too. Guardian fairy curriculum, at Alfea College for Fairies.”

Clary raised an eyebrow. “So there are classes on how to be a fairy?”

“Not exactly?” Izzy hummed. “You take classes to learn how to harness all of your power and make sure you’re using your magic correctly. That’s the gist of most fairy programs in the magical dimensions, but Alfea has a special Guardian Fairy program. You learn how to care for your realms, your planets… And you get pushed to reach the ultimate fairy form that Guardian Fairies have to have. The Enchantix.”

Clary chuckled. “You’re speaking Chinese.”

“I’m not. I’m speaking Earth English,” Izzy raised an eyebrow.

“I meant, I don’t really understand what you’re saying. This is so new to me. Real fairies seem very much entirely different from what we learn about fairies on Earth.”

Izzy hummed, walking over to the book about fairies that Clary had been reading the night before. She picked it up and flipped it open, looking through some random pages.

"Is your world like that?" Clary asked softly. “Do they have some things right?”

The woman seemed to hesitate a little. “They have a few things right. But it’s not as pretty as in this book. Not as perfect. There are issues, like in every other world, every other society. And not every fairy is sweet and perfect. Fairies may use white magic, maybe, but not all fairies are good.”

Clary nodded a little, sighing. “I guess… Yeah. It’s just weird. To think that, this morning, I mostly thought it was a fairytale, a story.”

Izzy smiled softly, looking at her. “And now, there’s a real life fairy in front of you?”

Clary sighed. “And I might be one.”

“Your power sure felt like fairy magic to me. I mean, I’m not a professional, far from it. I did just spend a year at a school full of them though. And grew up around a couple. The King and Queen of Solaria made sure I had only fairy tutors.”

Clary huffed, standing up and going to tidy some things. “The King and Queen had something to say in your education? Damn.”

“The King and Queen of Solaria are my parents.”

Clary turned around and stared at the other woman. So that explained the regal manners, the perfectly polished behavior and the way she spoke. It wasn’t just what fairies were like, it was what a fairy princess was like.

“You’re a princess, too?”

Izzy chuckled. She stood up straighter, taking the ring off of her finger again and looking at Clary. She took a complicated bow, using the scepter for balance, her dark hair flowing over her shoulders. She looked up at her and smiled.

“Princess Isabelle of Solaria, Princess of the Sun and the Moon, and Fairy of the Sun and the Moon. One day, surely, Guardian Fairy of the Kingdom of Solaria,” she introduced herself.

Clary couldn’t help but stare at her. It was… so much. There was a fairy princess in her bedroom, and she was absolutely beautiful. And sweet.

“And you, my dear,” Izzy said walking towards her and gently cupping her cheek. “might just be the Fairy of Fire.”

-------------------

The grass under Clary’s feet felt unnaturally soft. She guessed it was all unnatural, since they were in what Izzy called a bottomless postcard. Clary looked up. There was a rectangle in the sky, an opening, through which she could see the ceiling of her bedroom.

They stood in what looked, felt and seemed like a normal clearing in the some cartoonishly perfect woods. The trees looked like they had been drawn from the dreams of a ten-year-old, and the birds were singing. The rays of sun on Clary’s skin were so bright and defined that they seemed solid.

In front of her, Izzy had her eyes closed, her head tilted back slightly as she let the sunbeam fall on her features. Her skin was golden then, smooth and perfect. Everything seemed smooth and perfect.

Clary wondered whether it was the fact that it was a postcard that made it like this, almost unreal. Maybe it was just how it was in this magic world.

Izzy re-opened her eyes and for a moment, they shimmered gold, the sunray catching directly in them and transforming the darkness of her iris into light.

“So this is Alfea Castle,” Izzy exclaimed. Clary stopped staring at her and looked over where Izzy was pointing. They were close to it.

It was niched in the forest and felt like a safe haven from the world. Nothing imperfect could happen here, she was sure of it. While the roof was blue and almost blended in with the sky, the walls of the castle were a soft pink with purple accents. It reminded her a bit of cotton candy. But elegant cotton candy.

The buildings had a roundness to them that reminded Clary of the ones she would draw as a child. The whole area felt like taking a step back into her childhood, revising the perfect world that she had imagined fairies lived in. She hadn’t been so wrong, after all.

There were tall windows and balconies over the upper levels of the building. “Do people live there?”

Izzy nodded. “It’s a boarding school. Up to six people can share an apartment, itself divided in rooms. Royalty, like me, usually get solo rooms. You’d be getting a room with a roommate probably. “

Clary didn’t know if she would mind. As long as the other girl wasn’t weird with her because Clary was gay, she would love to share a room with someone and live out some sort of collegial dream that her proximity with her school in Gardenia didn’t allow her. Even if she loved the fact that she didn’t have to pay to live at her parents’. Thinking of Gardenia…

“What about my school in Gardenia? I would waste so much money dropping out of there and coming here… It’s free right?”

Izzy shrugged. “For someone like you? Absolutely. We royals pay entrance fees and donate money so others, with less money, can have it for free. It’s also considered a good deed, and charity is a very important value, especially in the fairy world.”

Clary opened her mouth and tried to think of something to say, but all of what was playing in her head was the stupidities and cruel words that politicians said on tv. About not wanting to pay so others can have access to the same things as them, especially things like healthcare or education.

Maybe some of those people existed in this world, but they seemed to be enough of a minority that prestigious schools like Alfea didn’t work with their model.

“I’m sure you’d like it here," Izzy grinned.

“I don’t know… I have to talk about it with my parents. It’s a big change.”

The idea of letting go of her spot at the Gardenia Academy of Arts, the idea of leaving Gardenia behind, leaving the future she had envisioned behind and diving head first into this new world and this new life terrified her.

She could feel a pull in her heart, a feeling that, if she did not take the chance, she would throw away the chance to follow her fated path. But was it strong enough to counteract the rational concerns about money and future?

“Listen, you have a night to think about it. Talk with your parents, think a bunch. When I’m leaving tomorrow, I can take you with me. But after that… I have no idea when you’d meet another fairy able to get you here…” Izzy said softly. “Though I would probably come back for you.”

Clary opened wide eyes at that. “Really?” She whispered and some kind of weird hope and warmth filled her chest.

Izzy nodded, looking at her softly. “Really. There is something about you… I feel like our paths have crossed for a reason. I was destined to crash on Earth, be saved by you, and bring magic into your life. I can’t explain it.”

Clary didn’t know if she could believe her. Izzy was wonderful and beautiful and almost unreal. What if Clary was just hallucinating this? What if this was just a dream?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Izzy taking her hand in hers. Clary looked down at their two hands joined, her skin looking absolutely white next to Izzy’s darker tone.

“Let’s get out of there, alright?” Izzy asked.

Clary nodded.

“All you gotta do is jump up!” Izzy explained and looked up at the opening in the sky. She looked over at Clary for a moment. Clary nodded at her again. They counted to three and jumped.

Clary could feel herself pulled upwards, and it was a bit uncomfortable, but very quick. It passed easily. She shook her head as she resurfaced in her bedroom, struggling a little to adapt.

She didn’t have much time to do the adjustments however, because a few seconds after they had come back from the postcard, there was a loud crash, coming from downstairs. It was followed by a great snarl.

Izzy’s eyes opened wide at that and she turned to Clary. They rushed downstairs immediately.

It was chaos. The small red ant-like monsters were back, and Clary could see the massive back of the yellow creature. There was another one with them this time, it was blue and it was snarling the loudest. They were making quick work of destroying the living room

"Those girls must be around here somewhere," the yellow one growled.

Before he could ask Amber and William where they were, Clary and Izzy came up behind them. There was a fire in Izzy’s eyes that Clary hadn’t really seen before. She’d already been tired when they’d met in the midst of battle.

"We’re right behind you!" Izzy called out. The yellow monster growled in confusion and Izzy smirked. “Let’s end this, shall we?"

Before Clary could say anything, Izzy was standing in front of her, feet planted wide. “Solaria!” She shouted, and a beam of bright light surrounded her in a blinding pocket of light. Clary lost sight of her, but only for a second. Almost immediately, rays erupted from the light cocoon, and the cocoon exploded.

Gone were the royal garments and the tiara, and back were the fairy wings. She wore the same outfit Clary had seen on her in the park, orange cropped top with only one shoulder, short shorts of the same sparkling orange material, and knee high boots. Her hair had magically been divided into two pigtails held by orange tube ties, and Clary felt the power radiating from her. Her first impression hadn’t been mistaken. In her fairy form, Izzy was glowing.

Clary gasped as Izzy immediately flew forward, kicking the blue monster in the chest. She had the time to notice nipple rings on this one. What was THAT about? Clary decided not to focus on the possibly kinkiness of the enormous blue monster that was destroying her home.

"What’s the use of you?” The yellow beast snarled at the blue one. “You got beat by a cutesy fairy!"

Izzy landed on her feet and raised an eyebrow. “Of course he did. But... I’m no ordinary fairy,” she chuckled. “I’m the Princess of Solaria!”

She turned to Clary. “Clary, we’re outnumbered. We’re gonna have to split them up."

Without thinking, Clary nodded. “Alright, I have an idea. I’ll take care of the red ones."

She was running entirely on automatism. She shot a quick glance at Amber and William, nodding at them reassuringly, before she started running out of the house. She ran through the corridor and the kitchen, slammed the door open and ran outside. She shut the door back once she was there, keeping the red creatures outside.

Once there, she froze. “Fuck.” She had no idea what to do.

By her side, Kiko was barking and shaking, in a mix of wanting to protect her and being absolutely terrified. She definitely could relate to that feeling. She wanted to protect her home and her parents, but now she was outside, alone, with four little red monsters that could maybe possibly kill her. She wasn’t exactly comfortable.

She got into position to try and summon the magical flame that she’d felt in the park. She took a deep breath. “Come on, Clary,” she whispered. “You can-”

She didn’t have time to finish her sentence. Out of thin air, the yellow monster had appeared and had crashed down on the red monsters, killing them instantly. The yellow creature itself looked pretty damaged.

Well. Izzy sure knew how to command respect.

Right as she was thinking that, there was a loud crashing noise and Izzy came flying through the glass window. She landed on the ground and groaned loudly.

“Izzy!" Clary exclaimed, running to help her get up. She didn’t look in that good of a state. Her previously so smooth and perfect skin was littered with small cuts from the glass, and she could see a couple of pieces sticking out of some slightly deeper wounds. She was bleeding. There were cuts in her wings too, shredding the delicate membranes.

"Don’t worry,” Izzy smiled a little, but you could see it was painful. “I’ve called the Specialists."

The what now? "Who?"

Izzy didn’t reply. Whoever the Specialists were, Clary sure hoped that they were coming soon. The blue monster - that she’d heard referred to as a troll - was now coming out of the main door. Coming through might be more appropriate, as the beast just forced its way through the wood.

It walked, slowly, and all Clary could do was watch. Izzy seemed weaker even than at the park, and she almost couldn’t sit up. There was no hope. They were going to die in there, because there was no way that people from another dimension would show up THAT fast.

Clary closed her eyes and held Izzy’s hand as the creature loomed over them. “I love you, mom and dad.” She whispered, even if she knew they couldn’t hear her. They’d fled through the back of the house.

She smelled the troll’s nauseating breath on her. She felt a tear roll down her cheek. She was only 19. She couldn’t even summon the little bits of power she had. She waited for death.

Death didn’t come. There was a loud crack, the crack of a whip, and the troll snarled.

Clary opened her eyes. A thick black cable was wrapped around the troll’s neck, pulling it backwards. She took in a ragged breath, eyes following the cable to where four men were standing.

The one holding the whip had blond hair that flopped over his face. He wore a… bodysuit? With a cape? And very tight, at that. Clary put the outfit in the “WTF - will revisit later and demand an explanation” folder of her brain that was growing fuller by the second, at this point.

"Guys, I’m ready,” one of the other men said. This one had short dark hair and glasses. So there were magical creatures with vision issues. Okay. Good to know, she guessed.

The one in between whip-guy and glasses-guy had dark hair, a bit of a frown and was very tall. Taller by a few inches than the three other men for sure. "Alright, let’s take him to jail where he belongs." He called out. He seemed to be the leader of the group.

Whip guy huffed. "What’s the rush? Don’t you want to have a little bit of fun first?"

Clary almost yelled at him that Izzy was on the floor bleeding and that if they could remove the death threat from their vicinity, that would be great.

The fourth man, who was the only one not to be wearing the tight bodysuit and cape combo, sighed. He was holding a long black staff, leaning against it and waiting. His clothing was just as… unusual as the others’. He wore a purple turtle neck dress-like garment with elbow-length sleeves, decorated with yellow stripes, split open on both sides below the waist, and held at the waist tightly with a red sash. His pants were of the same purple color.

"I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you. After all, this is only your first mission,” he pointed out.

Just as he was saying that, the troll tugged on the whip, sending the one who was holding it flying towards him. Whip-guy let go of the whip then, and landed right next to Clary and Izzy.

The purple-wearing man sighed. "I rest my case."

Clary watched helplessly still as the troll turned to the remaining three and started attacking. The edge of the staff purple-guy was wielding turned into a blade as he switched hands. Now holding the staff-blade in his left hand, he used his right hand to perform a complicated motion. A dark, smokey ball of energy seemed to erupt from his palm and crashed into the ground.

The ground opened up then, and the troll stumbled, letting up his attacks on the others. Its ankle caught in the crack and it howled. The glasses-wearing man jumped into action, closing manacles onto its fists.

“Well done, but it’s not over yet!” The dark-haired leader spoke out.

The red monsters that had been kept had bay by the Specialists were now turning towards Clary, Izzy, and the man next to them. The blond man huffed and got up. He looked dirty and tired and turned to them and sent them a wink.

"I’ll protect you, ladies."

Clary would have spoken up, but she was terrified, and didn’t understand a thing of what was going on, so she stayed silent. He took a strange object, and activated it. A fuschia saber blade appeared, and with that, he started fighting.

Clary didn’t know where to look, but she was pulled back to the situation when she felt fingers intertwining with hers.

“Clary,” Izzy whispered. “We have to use magic on the yellow monster.”

“But… you’re injured and I can’t…”

Izzy shook her head. “Help me up.”

Clary slid a hand around Izzy’s waist and helped her to her feet. The fairy turned to her, looking at her with a firm, stern look. “Magic is often linked to emotion. We need to help the Specialists, or the monsters will kill us, and also your parents.”

Clary opened wide eyes.

"Strong feelings such as fear have summoned up the wonderful powers that are in you once before,” Izzy said, in a hushed whisper. “They were always there, you just didn’t know it. It’s just a question of concentration. With your energy you can do anything.”

“But I can’t, I’ve tried and I can’t…”

“Believe it,” Izzy whispered. “Believe you can produce just one burst… You must.”

Clary closed her eyes. She wanted to believe that she could. She didn’t know about being a fairy yet, but she hadn’t imagined what had happened at the park. If she could do it once, she could do it again.

She felt it. The flame. The built-up was slower and smaller than it had been at the park, it had been a sudden burst of energy. Here, she had to work for it. So she did. She took the spark and pulled. She called it to her.

And just when the yellow monster punched the whip-guy out of the way, the flame appeared in between her hands. Izzy grinned next to her. “Now throw it!”

Clary didn’t know what she meant by that so she just did the motion. She kept the ball of energy, pulled her hands up and threw it, as if she was throwing one of those basketballs in high school P.E..

Izzy had thrown hers at the same time, and they both caught the monster square in the back. It howled in pain and crashed on the ground.

“I told you, you could do it!” Izzy grinned. “I’m so proud of you!”

Clary looked down at her hands. She could still feel it, like a phantom caress on her finger tips, a light tingle. "Wow. Then I’m really a fairy,” she whispered out loud.

"Of course you are, I’m never wrong,” Izzy chuckled. It was a bit of a strange sight, her smile and her cheerfulness, with light drops of blood rolling down her cheek from the cuts.

The Specialists gathered around the weakened yellow creature as it painfully stood up. It seemed to realize that it was cornered as it swore loudly and looked around itself. They didn’t have time to grab it. It clapped its hands a couple of time and bright purple light engulfed it. Once it had dissipated, the creature was gone.

Clary exhaled. Izzy’s knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

“Izzy!” One of the men called out and came running to her. It was the dark-haired, tall and serious one. He easily slid his arms around her and pulled her up to his chest, carrying her bridal-style.

“Alec, I’m fine,” Izzy mumbled.

“You’re not. You’re bleeding and your wings are shredded. We have a medic pod in the ship, you’ll need it.”

Clary watched the scene, a bit perplexed. The purple-wearing man came up to her and smiled. “Are you alright there?”

Clary crossed her arms. She felt exhausted. “I’m… fine. Just tired. Where is he taking her?”

“To our ship. You can come with us, if you want.” The man was Asian, had dark brown eyes, golden skin and dark hair.

Clary nodded. “Sure.”

He smiled. “Alright. By the way, I’m Magnus. We didn’t have time for introductions earlier.”

Clary smiled back a little. “Clary. Clary Fray. I… Is Izzy going to be okay? She was really banged up.”

Magnus nodded. “Don’t worry about her. Even if the medic pod can’t fix her entirely, we can bring her back to the Red Fountain to take care of her. Besides, Alexander will do everything possible to make sure she’s alright.”

Clary guessed Alexander was the dark-haired man that had ran to her immediately. “Are they…”

Magnus laughed. “Oh Gods no. Alexander is Isabelle’s brother. Crown Prince Alexander of Solaria, to be exact. And, Alexander well…” He had a little smirk. “He’s taken.” Magnus sent a look at the man. It was both soft and somewhat possessive and Clary let out a small “oooh”.

Magnus nodded. “Exactly. Now, let’s get you fixed up too, you look exhausted. And I’ll introduce you to Jace and Simon.”

------------------

The ship was… not what Clary had expected. After the whimsical aspects of Alfea castle, she guessed she had imagined it less modern. It was shaped like a kite, with the cockpit on the top face of the structure, above the rest.

As she stepped into the ship, Clary noticed the stairs leading up to the cockpit. The area below it had a long metallic table, upon which they laid Izzy. Alec grabbed what seemed like a first-aid kit and took out a syringe filled with a blue liquid.

“Painkillers,” Magnus explained, as Alec injected the liquid into Izzy’s arm. “Since we don’t know how bad it is, we’re dosing her now. Best case scenario, we can fix her up here and she’ll just sleep it off at your place. Worst case scenario, we have to transport her to the Red Fountain, Solaria, or the fairy hospital in Magix, and she’ll need it.”

Clary hated to see Izzy like that. It felt like it was all her fault, even if she knew it wasn’t.

Laser-like green and blue lights came out of the fixtures above the table and engulfed Izzy in what Clary hoped was healing magic. The dark-haired man - Alec - stayed by the side of the table, waiting, and watching.

Unlike the last time, Izzy was still in her fairy form.

The blonde-haired man walked up to them and looked at Clary. “Hey, what is she doing on the ship?” He asked Magnus.

“She saved your ass and wanted to watch over Isabelle,” Magnus replied. He smiled at Clary. “So that’s Jace. He’s Alec’s squire.”

Jace huffed. “More like… adoptive brother? I’m a ward of Solaria, and I grew up with Alec and Izzy,” he told Clary. Clary wondered if he was bragging or not. It wasn’t as if she actually cared.

“That’s nice,” Clary said, keeping her tone as devoid of actual interest as she could. “And I’m guessing Simon is the one with the glasses?”

Magnus nodded. “Yes. He’s our tech guy, and maybe the nicest person you’ll ever meet.”

Izzy had been so incredibly nice that Clary wouldn’t really imagine anyone being nicer than her. She was still laying under the lights but the superficial cuts were healing. Some of the tears in her wings were growing back together as well, but not the biggest ones.

“Magnus, could you suit up?” Alec asked over his shoulder and Magnus left Clary’s side with a light pat on her shoulder. She watched him put on some clothes and grab some tweezers. With those, he started taking out the pieces of glass that were still in some of the wounds.

Clary didn’t know how she could stomach this. She normally hated the sight of blood and anything vaguely surgery-related. Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe she didn’t want to leave the side of the one person she somewhat knew and trusted. Whatever it was, she seemed bolted into place.

It felt like hours until Magnus was done taking out glass and stitching wings back together enough for the light beams to act. Alec and him talked quietly about what to do, and Alec eventually turned to Clary.

“We’re going to leave her with you for tonight. I’ll alert our family in Solaria and see what they want us to do, but for now, she seems fine. She’ll probably need someone to check on her wings, but the infirmary of Alfea can do it.”

Clary nodded. “Alright. Does she require anything specific?”

Alec shook his head. “She just needs rest. She’ll probably turn back into her human form too. We managed to keep her in her fairy form as long as we could to take care of her wings, but it won’t hold for much longer.”

Clary didn’t know if she was qualified in any way to take care of a wounded fairy. She’d shot some magic out of her hands a couple of times, but that sure didn’t seem like it would be enough.

The Specialists were starting to look tired too, and their uniform was a bit dirty. Clary noticed some light differences, mostly in the weapons they had holstered to their bodies, but also in the brooch that held their cloak in place, over their heart. They all had a different color. Jace’s was fuschia, just like the blade he’d used earlier. Alec’s was light blue, and Simon’s was yellow. She wondered if there was a significance.

Izzy stirred on the table and opened her eyes. She huffed. “Really? Full medic pod?” She grumbled weakly. Clary guessed it was the painkillers that made her a bit loopy. Izzy tried to sit up but failed. She radiated less glow than she had when she’d been fully powered.

They talked and checked her out for a small amount of time, and then got her back to the Fairchild house. Amber and William were sitting on their couch. They seemed quite uncomfortable, looking at their broken up apartment.

As Alec and Clary moved to settle Izzy in the spare bedroom, Magnus, Simon and Jace offered to help rebuild and tidy.

Alec laid Izzy on her stomach, as she was still in her fairy form. It seemed to flicker a little, not being able to completely stay permanent anymore. She was truly exhausted. Izzy grumbled some stuff about not being useless and being able to take care of herself under her breath as they tucked her in.

She was asleep within seconds, and the wings disappeared with the rest of her fairy form. They took off her shoes, her tiara and jewelry, setting those on the bedside table before letting her sleep it off.

Soon after, the Specialists gone, Clary crashed in bed and fell asleep before she could take her clothes off.

----------------

Clary yawned as she woke up, hours later. The sun was beaming inside her bedroom, and for a moment, she forgot what had happened. It was when she moved that she remembered, because she was aching. She was aching pretty much all over.

And it hadn’t been from a particularly intense gym session either. It had been from using magic. She sat up straight on her bed immediately at the thought of that and regretted it just as fast.

She still pulled herself out of bed. She slid out of the clothes she’d been wearing the night before and had slept in. She walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Everything was still messy.

Amber and William were sitting in the kitchen, around a fresh pot of coffee, discussing something in hushed voices. Her mom’s dark hair and her dad’s blond hair were almost touching from how close they were and how secretive their conversation was.

Clary cleared her throat. They looked up at her. Amber smiled softly at her daughter.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” she said.

Clary walked to the coffee pot, grabbed a mug and poured herself some. “You never call me sweetheart.”

When she turned around, there was a heaviness in Amber’s eyes and in her smile. William sighed and gently put his hand on his wife’s. Clary swallowed. It all seemed so… strange.

“We were talking about… all of what happened last night.”

Clary nodded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought her home with me, it only caused trouble.”

Amber shook her head. “No, Clary, we don’t blame you at all. We don’t blame her either. She tried her best to protect us, and from what the… men from last night said, she was pretty injured doing so.”

“We’re just thinking about what it means for you. And for this family,” William explained. He looked tired, much more tired than Clary was used to seeing him. He looked like he had just been on a triple shift at the casern. Maybe they had spent all night talking about that.

“We want the best for you,” Amber explained. “And… from what we saw, there is something within you that has been awakened. Something you can’t control.”

Clary sat down on a stool in front of them. She gathered her hands around the burning hot mug. It didn’t feel that bad. It even felt comforting.

“The school Izzy talked about,” William sighed. “No matter how improbable it sounds, how… wrong my head is telling me it is… Maybe it could be a good place for you to learn how to control… all of that.”

Clary didn’t really know what to say. She wanted to go to Alfea, she could feel that it was a right choice. But diving in the strange world of magic and fairies scared her. It terrified her.

“You wouldn’t have to pay for anything… Only the royals pay. The rest can go for free,” Clary said softly. “I…”

“Be honest with us, darling,” Amber asked. “You’re an adult, and this is your life, your future. Does Alfea sound like a good option for you? Do you feel like you belong there?”

Clary’s heart was screaming that yes, she belonged there. But there was still a little voice in the back of her mind. A voice that told her that she wasn’t good enough. That managing to create a couple of fire balls wasn’t the same as using spells and having a fairy form like Izzy had.

“Yes,” she still said. “I… I want to go. I want to try. If I don’t succeed, well, I’ll come back.”

William nodded and rubbed his face with his hand for a moment. “Okay, okay…”

“So you’re leaving…”

“Today,” Clary said. “This morning, even. The term starts tomorrow, I believe.”

She saw her parents hesitate then. It was a sudden change. Clary was afraid of it too. She’d never left home for more than a week of vacation with a girl she’d considered her friend in her last year of highschool.

Amber stood up. “Then,” she said, her voice a bit shakier than Clary wanted it to be. “We need to get to packing.”

Clary stood up as well. She walked around the table and hugged her dad for a moment. He hugged her back quickly, but gently pushed her away afterwards. “Go pack,” he said softly.

Clary nodded and kissed his cheek. Amber and her walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. As they walked past the bathroom, they heard the water running. Izzy was in a good state then, if she was able to shower without issues. That made Clary feel better.

Kiko ran between their legs, yapping as they took out the suitcase and started packing.

“Can I take him?”

Amber nodded. “Yes, we’ve talked about it. We’ve thought it would be good for you to have him, provided that the school lets you have him.”

“I’ll ask Izzy, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

They packed everything that Clary could think of and closed the suitcase. Amber was a little teary-eyed. Clary didn’t know what to do really, so she just hugged her tightly for a moment.

“I’ll come back anyway. There sure are vacations. And I’ll make sure to get a phone that can call you the second I can,” she promised.

They walked back down the stairs where Isabelle was chatting with William. William looked like he was only understanding part of the things she was saying. Amber cleared her throat.

"Clary’s ready,” she said.

Izzy turned around and grinned. She looked much better this morning than she had when she’d fallen asleep. She wasn’t pale anymore, she looked healthy. She wasn’t wearing her royal clothing anymore, nor was she in her fairy form.

She wore a burnt orange jumpsuit, nice and fluid with a v cleavage and thin straps. She had a broad, large, Egyptian-looking necklace around her neck, ornate with orange, gold and blue stones, that Clary recognized from the first outfit she’d seen her in. It was probably something to do with her royal status. Crown jewels maybe.

Clary smiled back at her.

“You look better,” Clary said softly.

“I just needed some sleep and I’m all new,” Izzy chuckled, waving it off. Clary had no way to know if she was still in pain or not. Whatever she was feeling, Izzy was hiding it well.

William sighed. “What will I tell people when they ask where you are?”

Clary hummed. “A boarding school out of state. An Art Academy… prestigious and secretive. That would probably shut them up.”

Her father nodded and came to hug her again. She let go of the suitcase again and hugged him tightly.

“You be careful, alright?” He asked.

“I promise.”

Clary and her parents bid her goodbyes. Clary tried not to focus on it much. She would be back. It wasn’t forever. She hated goodbyes anyway, and she was kinda tearful and hated the idea of being this emotional in front of her new friend, who seemed to be quite the master of her own emotional responses.

Once she was done hugging her parents and Kiko had settled in her arms, Izzy looked at her and nodded. “Let’s go. We don’t want to miss on the welcoming ceremony.”

She took the ring off of her finger and it extended into the scepter again. Clary was somewhat started to get used to that particular trick. Isabelle took a deep breath and brandished the scepter.

“Solaria! To Magix!” She shouted, and a bright light engulfed Clary, Kiko and her. She had time to somewhat wave goodbye to her parents for one last time before she felt herself pulled downwards. Clary closed her eyes firmly.

It was a stronger pull than the one she’d felt in the postcard and it made her almost nauseous. It was like being distended, stretched in length in a way. Kiko whined a little.

With her eyes closed, she wasn’t able to tell when they were done with the transport. All she felt was the sudden lack of pulling, and the ground she landed on.

She opened her eyes again. Izzy was standing over her, holding out her hand with a smile. “The first time is always a bit difficult,” she chuckled and Clary rolled her eyes, taking her hand.

The grass was deep and soft, and Clary wondered how Izzy managed to stay upright when walking on it with her uncomfortable-looking high heels. Maybe it was magic. Clary was very glad to be wearing combat boots.

They were back around the area where the postcard had taken them, but this time, they were walking out of it. Izzy was leading the way towards the lavender and pink castle, her steps firm.

Clary sighed for a second. She looked behind her, where she’d landed, where she somehow hoped she would see the line between her old life and her new life. But there wasn’t any line or any doorway to Gardenia. The door had closed already. She’d already chosen.

“Come on!” Izzy called. “We don’t want to be late.”

Clary swallowed and turned towards the castle again. Kiko ran up towards Izzy, sniffing everything he could sniff. Izzy turned around and looked at Clary, holding out her hand again for her to take.

Clary took it.

-----------------

In the next chapter, at Alfea, Clary will discover new life and amazing new friends. But, in the Magic Dimension, she will also meet the witches from the school of Cloud Tower, the first problem she will have to deal with. Peace in Magix will be threatened.

#clizzy #malec #winxaufic #shwinxau #fic #shadowhunters #winxclub

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nylaaaaa · 5 years ago

Text

Little Secret

Chapter 1. Your Secret Is Safe With Me

Name and Surname: Natalie Fleur Estelle

Sex: Female

Date of Birth: 19th August 1692

Place ( Registration

of < District Cynthell

Birth ( Sub-District

_________________________________________

"Here's the birth certificate. It has nothing about her parents on it as you suggested." I gave the man standing beside me, who had grown to be a brother to me, a quick, but satisfied, grunt of approval.

"Thank you. Keep this between us and I'll keep up my end of the deal." Quintin gave me a questioning side glance. I knew he didn't appreciate me bringing up the past but I needed him to keep this between us.

"I don't see why you won't be honest to her. For all we know she might be like you..." I knew what he was suggesting, but I refused to listen. She won't be like me. She can't be like me. I waved him away, annoyance clear as day across my face. He will be annoyed too. We both have secrets. I just don't know whose is worth more.

_________________________________________

Today....

Today is possibly the worst day I'll have in my life. I'm honestly not sure.

Today I officially turn 18 which, unluckily for me, means I have to add another thing to my job description.

Isaieth adopted me when I was born because my father died and it caused my mum to become a drunk. I don't exactly blame her for leaving and forgetting her troubles with a drink. But I also can't say I'm fond of it. I love Isaieth with all my heart, he feels like an actual father to me. But I sometimes wish I had an actual mother to help me grow as well.

When I was born my father died. No one told me how, I just know it was traumatic enough to make my mother a drunk. Isaieth adopted me when I was 2 after he had an accident that caused him to be deaf and partially blind. He wasn't fit for work anymore so the second I turned an age where I can go to the toilet by myself he taught me how to tend his farm. He makes a business by selling wheat that he grows and whatever we can get from the few animals we own. When I was 16 I found an abandoned lamb who we later discovered was a merino sheep. Merino sheep are, in my opinion, the best sheep you can get. Their carcasses are smaller than the average sheep so they aren't used for meat but rather for the wool that they grow. The average amount of wool the sheep grows is 11kg which is enough for about 11 sweaters. Aswell as the sheep we have 2 chickens, both of which are female. They were actually, in some ways, a gift from the king. The king and Isaieth are best friends almost from birth. They both grew up in royalty but only the king kept it that way. Isaieth was the son of a knight, and so in turn, Isaieth was also a knight. The king was born a prince and then was assigned a knight who happened to be Isaieth. One of the times when Isaieth was protecting the king he ended up getting seriously injured and the king fired him for his own safety. The king doesn't exactly care for the knight's wellbeing but because they were friends he decided a knight was too dangerous for Isaieth. After the event the king offered him a plot of land on the outskirts of the city that was run down and abandoned but had potential for a farm. Isaieth's dream as a boy was to grow old and have his own farm, so like any friend the king got him his own farm. Because of the friendship and countless times Isaieth saved his life our rent was greatly reduced and we were offered a permanent job to make sure we always had the money to pay rent. The job included selling off our produce from the animals. The eggs given to Isaieth was originally just starter food but Isaieth decided to keep them and let them hatch instead. When they grew to be quite old he kept a few of the last eggs they would hatch and did the same thing. The hens we have now are 1 years old, or will be in a few days. We don't get much from our farm but because of the discount on rent sometimes we have enough money to spare to get nice things. The average price of rent can go up to 100 gold.

(100 gold is like 1k, the money in this story is, bronze= pence or cents or whatever is the lowest in your country, silver= pounds or dollars etc and gold= the hundreds +. In simpler terms, but in GBP ((Great British Pounds)) terms, 1 bronze= 1 pence, 1 silver= 1 pound and 1 gold= 100 pound.)

Ours however got put down to 45 gold. It's still a lot that we just about make each month but we're still thankful that he even gave us this place to begin with. He didn't actually have to.

It's also lucky that our farm works well with rent times. Each month you have to go to the castle and pay your rent. If you dont have enough or you skip it they go to your house and either take a child, that becomes their servent who has to work for the money you didn't pay, or they take some belongings that you don't get back unless you pay extra. Luckily we've never seen it first hand but one of my childhood friends ended up becoming a servent from it. I haven't seen her since. Our wheat takes a month to grow so we've always got that to keep our money up. Unfortunately wheat sells cheap, one wheat grain sells for 30 bronze. Every month we grow, on average, 700 wheat grains but have to keep back 350 to replant so we can get 350 the next month too. So on average every month with wheat alone we make 10 gold and 5 silver. Which by itself is almost a quarter of our rent. Replanting and harvesting wheat is one of the most tedious jobs of farming, but maintaining is by far the easiest. You only have to water the plant at most once in summer but otherwise never. All you really have to do is make sure the plant isn't dying and be on your way. The worst job I have is turning the sheeps pelt into wool. She doesn't like to be milked so doing that is an annoyance but I dread making wool the most out of all the farm jobs I have. Next to maintaining the crop the hens are the easiest too. They lay at least one egg everyday, the only thing I have to do is collect the eggs without breaking them and make sure the hens are well fed and have fresh air. With making wool you have to flatten the pelt completely and then tie the strands together to make a really long piece of wool that I have to cut and ball up. It's the worst job on the entire farm but I can't say I hate doing it. My favourite thing is balling it all up after dying it. I'm just thankful all these things take a month to do or we'd be screwed on rent every month.

(Realistically these don't actually take a month, I researched so much to make the story as legit as possible but for story sake I tweaked the timing. Hens do lay one egg a day at least, if properly cared for and also depending on breed. But wheat takes a LOT longer to grow and you can only shave a sheep once a year. I changed the timing of it all tho or I'd have to be even more creative with money and stuff and tbh I'd rather not. Coming up with these ideas for the farm was hard enough.)

On average you get 2 balls of yarn out of 1kg of wool. Luckily for us our merino sheep produces 11kg of wool giving us 22 balls of yarn. 1 ball of yarn sells for 1 gold, so for 22 balls of yarn we make 22 gold. Personally I think it's extremely expensive but it does make sense considering there aren't many sheep around, which also means clothes, blankets and shoes are harder to get. On average with the hens we get 2 eggs a day. 1 egg sells for 25 silver, meaning the 2 we make in a day gives us 50 silver. There's 28 days in a month meaning with eggs alone we make 14 gold. Altogether in one month we usually make roughly 46 gold. As good of an amount as that is, 45 of it has to go to the king, leaving us with roughly 1 gold left. Because we're human and need to eat, bathe and clothe ourselves just like everyone else, whatever's left gets spent on stuff like that. On average every month we spend about 50 silver on food. I have my own plant pots in my room that we use for our own food. There's only 2 of them but in one plant pot I grow strawberries and in the other I grow raspberries. Truth be told if I sold the strawberries and raspberries we'd probably be richer but honestly, we're both kinda used to this life and although we don't have everything we want, we have everything we need. Besides the fruits take 2 months to grow and because of my reputation people would refuse to buy them for their actual price. They just about accept the other things, if fruits were in the mix I'd probably get death glares and 1 bronze for a batch. It doesn't bother me too much though because with whatever odd bit of wheat we had spare from the 700 odd we plant and sell we use that to make bread or pastry, so every 2 months we make the fruits into a jam or crush them and make a pie. My all time favourite activity is making them into pies or bread and jam with Isaieth. It's the only thing we can properly do together. He helps me replant and harvest the wheat sometimes because there's so much of it but usually he just watches from afar. His eye sight is getting worse the older he gets so he helps less and less. It saddens me because I know he doesn't want to go fully blind, we wouldn't be able to communicate at all and what kind of life are you living if you can't see or hear anything. You might as well be dead at that point or you'd be so throughly confused.

Getting back on track. Today is a bad day because it's the first day where I have to pay for the rent. I've been a few times with Isaieth as a child but I've never gone alone. It's an adults job and should only be done by an adult. But today, aswell as being my birthday, it's also rent day. Isaieth didn't actually want me to do it but I insisted knowing that he would have severe trouble doing it himself. And what's more is that I have to go alone to sell our produce now aswell. I don't put any blame on him and I especially will never complain. But in my head I can feel bitter about the situation.

I look forward to the day.....

...

No I don't.

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zapcamon · 5 years ago

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Death and Relive [pt.1]

The fear of death, according to many, is a fear of the unknown. But that cannot apply to you, you’ve seen death. On more than one occasion, you’ve felt death. Knowing what death is, and the aftermath of, doesn’t quell the fear. It’s the contrary.

The pain of isolation, trapped in an endless darkness, surrounded by nothing else but unfeeling voices of those you hardly remember; you know what death is, you were just only lucky that for all those times it was temporary. As was this time.

Admittedly, having some control over the situation is what kept you from going into a complete panic. As long as this isn’t a permanent change, as long as you keep count on the days you return to the living world, there’s nothing to be scared about. With that said, you still have some complaints.

One is that your needs are still very much alive somehow. But without a corporeal form, there’s now way you can fulfill even the most trivial stuff. Sex, drinking, or just physical human interaction.

Another is that the dead can’t sleep.

You’ve shut your eyes and tried to rest, and you think that it’s merely a lucid dream. Previously, you were at your room as just a floating spirit, complaining as per usual. Your only escape from the crushing fact that you are dead is by fiddling with your phone or computer. Turns out the horror movies were all right, ghosts can possess electronics. Now your surroundings have faded into vague shapes, then darkness.

It’s always fucking darkness. Hooooow original. You’re sick to death (or would it be double death) of dark abysses and all that edgy bullshit. Could a change of scenery be too much to ask for?

Though the question was only asked in your head, it seems your request was granted anyhow. The darkness shakes- the only way you could describe it is similar to distortions around a large, lit flame- and dissipates as a new environment appears around you. Judging by the numerous houses and giant castle, it has to be another village or town. There’s some familiarity to it, but you cannot recall coming to this place recently, or in many years in fact.

“Dammit.”

You hear a voice, and you’re relieved that there’s finally someone else to talk to. Even though it sounds like it came from some kid, and-

“Elrena, language!”

Oh.

They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. You cannot attest to that, being an amnesiac. So now the alternative is to discover hidden memories after your many deaths. It didn’t take too much effort into following the voice and seeing a very younger you. You’d take a guess and say she was around 13 at this point. She’s being lectured by a grown man wearing a unicorn mask. You wish that wasn’t a legitimate thought.

“Sorry! I’m just pi- I mean, mad that I let it get away. If I could’ve thrown my knives at it I..”

“Don’t worry about that. It’ll be taken care of shortly. If you need a long ranged attack, use your magic.”

“You mean I c-”

“From your Keyblade...”

“Really.”

You’re just kind of over there, hovering down slowly to the fountain and watching how bad this is going to go. The tone from the younger Elrena sounds anything but respectful. Granted it’s something you’d definitely say in present time, but you thought you were less curt in your childhood.

“Your talents are versatile, as they are impressive. But you have to grow more comfortable with your blade. You remember your goal, right?”

Your younger self looks downcast, but a second later her head shoots up to check on something behind her shoulder. Must’ve been that pest that got away earlier. Her blade is raised up, but rather than wielding it like a blunt weapon, she grips the handle and pommel in the same manner as positioning a rifle. The blade glows and a bolt of lightning ejects from it, hitting the target. It’s an instant kill.

The mans large, gaudy mask obscures his face, making it hard to see his expression from your position. But you can read from his body language that there’s a moment of approval, betraying the stern tone he’s previously used. At first he appears to be walking away, then stops once he’s right besides the young memory of you.

“You have ambitions, Elrena, but don’t let them lead you astray. I can see you’re destined for great things on the light’s path.”

Well, that was a fucking lie, you ponder bitterly. Oh, hindsight. Who’s this guy anyway? You remembered Ava, but how many other animal impersonating weirdos did you meet in actuality?

“‘Kay, I’ll try to remember that, Ira.”

Ira.

It’s then you spring yourself up from your sitting spot and rush to follow him. He can’t hear you, but you can follow him, right?

Nope. At some point he just disappears into thin air. Now it’s confirmed to you. This is all your memories, you didn’t follow him back then, you never knew where he went.

Ironically, rather than locked away memories of Ira surfacing at last, you can only think of recent memories of Aqua. In some ways he reminded you of her. Her seriousness when it came to telling you that you’re wrong about things, the warmth she’d give when she’d, God forbid, see anything good in you, her persistence in guiding you to the right path despite you taking a nosedive to the booze every other mental breakdown.

You just compared this woman to a horse furry, great job.

Why are you even thinking of her at this time? This is no time for yearning, young lady, you are DEAD. Soon your unbeating heart will start aching since you know you can’t hug her and make up for being such a big, shitty, stupid pile of garba- Oh god, it’s already happening. Stop this silliness at once and go on to the next memory.

The location is pretty much unchanged, and now it’s a different adult approaching younger you. This one you can already tell from the pink gown and fox mask. It’s the same women who once brought you all to gave foreboding news that you were all up against an imminent apocalypse- which may or may not have never happened- otherwise known as a Keyblade War.

Ava is talking, but unlike the previous conversation with Ira, she’s having a more quiet and private conversation with younger Elrena. Before you can inch in closer to hear better, Ava already breaks away, bows her head politely and leaves.

For fucks sake, are there rewind buttons on this?

The memory doesn’t end yet. Your younger self starts muttering, one word you can make out particularly clear.

Dandelions?

It’s not just a name. It’s how you survived. Survived whatever the fuck happened between that and losing your heart the first time. The large, abnormal gap in your memory is closing, even if by inches.

You have a feeling this “dream” is going to last a while...

#[ic status]#alcohol mention //#[I DIDNT INTEND FOR THIS TO BE A TWO PARTER BUT IT GOT WAY TOO LONG SOWWY]]

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sage-nebula · 6 years ago

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pokemon (games) and/or pokeani for the meme?

I’ll go ahead and answer for the anime, since although I prefer the games, I think the anime works better for memes like this.

the first character i ever fell in love with:

Ash Ketchum, way back in 1998. He was pretty much an instant fave for me, and no doubt contributed to my love of snark and sass (given that his name could have just as easily been Sass Ketchum and would have arguably been more accurate).

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Manon. I liked her well enough at first, but the way her stans constantly bashed and degraded Alan while using that degradation to prop Manon up (often by making him her trophy boyfriend, which is really disgusting when you consider not only the age, but the maturity difference between them) quickly ruined any fondness I had for her. The fact that she got off scot-free in the show without having to realize or own up to any of her own mistakes or shortcomings (while Alan took the fall for all of them instead) didn’t help.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Mmm, I can’t really think of anything for this one. I don’t think there’s anything that I used to seriously ship in this show that I don’t ship now. There are casual ones I can think of that I no longer even casually ship, but even those were more of a shrug and acceptance rather than something I actively liked.

my ultimate favorite character™:

ALAN [SYCAMORE], FIRST OF HIS NAME, HEART OF A CHAMPION, SOUL OF A DRAGON. It’s honestly no contest. I cannot think of a single character in the whole of the PokéAni that could come even close to comparing with him. I still block on sight for any nonsense hatred or condemnation thrown his way, and I regret nothing.

prettiest character:

I mean … I know I’m biased, but …

My valiant dragon son is beautiful. I mean, in particular, his eyes …

He has dragon fire in his eyes. You don’t get much prettier than that.

my most hated character:

Paul. He’s straight up abusive to his pokémon, and him learning to give them the absolute bare minimum of care and praise at the end of a match (or losing to Ash at the League, which I literally do not care about at all) is not enough for him to curry favor or earn forgiveness in my eyes. He can go burn, and for that matter, he can take that bastard Damian from the OS right along with him as he does.

my OTP:

Ash/Misty will always be endgame to me, as well as Jessie/James.

I do think that it’s probable that Ash and Misty would end up dating other people as they grow older—that Ash would date Dawn for a while, for instance, and that Misty would have a relationship with Lana—but at the end of it all I think they’d find their way back to each other, once they’ve grown up and matured and realized that, while their first crushes on each other might have been puppy love back when they were kids, now that they’re older … it’s deeper and more meaningful than that. It’s real.

As for Jessie/James, I think those two are soulmates, however you want to interpret it. Maybe their relationship stays platonic forever. Maybe their relationship is romantic. Maybe their relationship floats in a nebulous space between platonic and romantic, undefined as Meowth rolls his eyes from the other side of the balloon. Whatever the case, I don’t really care as long as they’re together. That’s what matters most.

my NOTP:

Aside from the obvious ones of bestiality, incest, and pedophilia, my answer to this would have to be Alan/Manon. I never liked it to begin with because of the age / maturity gap between them (honestly, Manon acts like Bonnie, the show parallels her to Bonnie, and Alan is so mature people often mistake him for an adult despite Malva referring to him as a boy, how is this even a question), but between how the show handled their relationship and how the ship’s stans (who are always Manon stans, from my experience) handle it / treat Alan, I honestly want to scrape my brain out with an ice pick every time I’m reminded this ship exists. It’s a trashboat of epic proportions as far as I’m concerned.

favorite episode:

It’s less one single episode, and more one trio of episodes: OS022 - OS024, a.k.a. “Abra and the Psychic Showdown”, “The Tower of Terror”, and “Haunter vs. Kadabra.” Those three episodes left a major lasting impression on me as a kid, in a good way. That depiction of Sabrina as a villain with a creepy monotone, who had a small “doll” that represented her childlike innocence (that was still villainous in her innocence!), and the way she presented a formidable threat that no one else in the series had managed until that point … not to mention the backstory with how she drove her own parents away (and turned her own mother into a doll), how she was always waiting for her father to show himself again, how she drove herself to that point by obsessing over her powers (I would too, ngl) … man. I loved everything about that trio of episodes. I still love that trio of episodes. There are quite a few episodes in the OS that I turn to regularly whenever I just need something to watch, but I think those three are extra special.

saddest death:

LATIOS IN THE GUARDIANS OF ALTO MARE. At first I was like, “wait, did anyone who wasn’t a villain ever even permanently die?” AND THEN I REMEMBERED LATIOS AND HAD TO CLUTCH AT MY HEART FOR A SECOND. RIP LATIOS, YOU ARE MISSED.

favorite season:

It’s a tie between the very first season (Kanto), and the second season (Orange Islands). While both had their faults, what I like most about those two seasons that latter seasons (even in the OS, with Johto!) lack is how organic they feel. Kanto especially was created before the Pokémon Anime really decided on its identity, and chose a formula to stick to for successive seasons, most likely because they weren’t sure they were even going to get successive seasons back when they were making it (the series was supposed to end with Mewtwo Strikes Back, after all). As a result of this, we had some truly original episodes. We had the three episodes with Sabrina that I mentioned above, but we also had episodes like “The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak” with a Gastly that could talk for reasons unexplained and who impersonated humans to keep a dead girl’s legend alive; we had episodes like “Mystery at the Lighthouse” with a giant Dragonite that was never explained or seen again (also, still mad at Team Rocket to this day for attacking that poor baby); we had episodes like “Electric Soldier Porygon” where everyone traveled into the internet with Porygon to stop a computer virus (and give 800+ Japanese children seizures, but that wasn’t supposed to be part of it); and we had episodes like “Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon” where Ash discovered that a bunch of fossil pokémon were living underground and, in the process of all this, almost got eaten by an Aerodactyl. And the Orange Islands, while slightly more tame, was similarly allowed to be pretty free and fun given that it didn’t follow the badge quest formula, and the Orange Islands weren’t drawn from the games, meaning that the anime team could do whatever they wanted with them. So between the anime not yet having a set formula in season one, and the anime being set somewhere completely new in season two, seasons one and two of the PokéAni had plots that were basically like:

That was every day in the first two seasons of the PokéAni, because the first two seasons of the PokéAni were already so goddamn weird, and they were better off for it.

Aside from how weird and strange the plot could get, though, I also feel that the first season especially felt a lot more organic than even the second because the effects of the journey were regularly shown on the main characters. They were lost pretty much all the time (which is why they needed to keep Tracey for Johto, tbqh; he was the only one who had a sense of direction). They were often dirty and longing for baths and laundromats. In “Wake Up Snorlax” they’re out of food and practically crying as the town they reach doesn’t have anything to offer them because it’s been so long since they’ve eaten. Ash, Brock, and Misty are two children and a teenager traveling across the continent by themselves. It makes sense that they wouldn’t always have a nice place to sleep, that they’d run out of food, that they’d be grimy and exhausted a good deal of the time, especially since they’re always lost. (They were lost for like 70% of the first season istg. The narrator even lampshades when it takes them two weeks to reach Vermilion City and they all cheer.) I really liked how the first season in particular showed them tired, grody, hungry, and lost for a good portion of the journey. It felt so much more realistic than the perfect, spotless journeys that came later on.

least favorite season:

Outside of Alan and everything to do with him, I’m not much of a fan of Kalos. I’m also not really a fan of Alola because I don’t think slice of life really suits this series as much as the adventure genre does, but it had some good cameo episodes and also has Gladion, so it has its good points, too.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Paul and Manon. Paul in particular is incredibly popular and I will never understand it.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

Honestly, I’m not sure? I think the closest I get to this is Jessie and James, since they’re two grown adults constantly stalking and bullying a ten year old boy, which would be insanely worrying if not for the fact that said ten year old put them in their place literally every other day. (Plus I like to think they actually do really care about him at this point. It’s what I’d like to believe, anyway.) Maybe Cassidy and Botch would be better contenders, though. They have no redeeming qualities, they’re just assholes, but I’d still be super mega excited to see them come back.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

ALAN deserves better than all he has suffered, and definitely deserves better than this goddamn unappreciative fandom. He is a burned cinnamon roll, been through hell and back, slightly charred, and he deserves the world.

Apart from him, though, Ash every time he gets put through some hell because of fate or destiny or legendaries or whoever the hell has decided to mess with him this week. After everything that went down in Kalos, can we really blame him for going to Alola for a vacation? And yet he’s STILL pulled into Ultra Wormhole nonsense! My god, just let this poor boy rest, he deserves it!!

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

Listen, I’m not one of those fools that thinks it’s canon, but I always loved the fic trope of Giovanni being Ash’s father because he and Delia had a fling way back in the day and I am grateful to that awful musical for giving it to us. The angst potential is real for this one, and I also like the idea of Giovanni allowing Jessie and James to chase Ash all over creation despite how it completely tanked their careers and potential not just because it “keeps them out of the way,” but also because it’s a way for him to keep an eye on his son without them ever knowing that’s his son. There’s some good fic potential there.

On a more serious note, while I don’t think it’s “wrong,” or “nasty,” or “makes me want to cleanse my soul,” I’ve always kind of shipped Spencer/Delia, too. The idea of Spencer Hale and Delia Ketchum finding love together later in life, and Ash and Molly becoming step-siblings as a result, is one that warms my heart. I know that Molly’s mother comes back at the end of Spell of the Unown, but … well, that was just a post-credits scene and so it’s easy to ignore. Come on, let Ash have a little step-sister. Let Molly have the mother she always wanted. It’s what they deserve.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

I wouldn’t say I’m highkey invested in any romantic ship in this show, haha. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s not like any of them have a chance at development outside of small hints here or there, you know? So there’s no reason to get all up in a twist about it. So I think that most ships I ship could fall into this category. Cute, but no need to make a fuss about them.

#fandom meme #pokemon #pokeani #tangelomadness

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chiibinomonodamon · 7 years ago

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Hey Arnold! thoughts/opinions

Hey Arnold! is still my most favorite show to come from Nickelodeon. While Invader Zim is great, HA! can give you warm, fuzzy feelings and it has great messages for young kids. It’s hilariously funny, clever, realistic, and has a lot of heart and good morals without getting overly preachy or sappy.

Hey Arnold! is the only cartoon my father not only took seriously; he actually complimented it and he loves Helga’s crush on Arnold.

If I were to make a list of “Best Episodes of Cartoons Ever”, ‘Helga On the Couch’ would easily be in the Top Five. Really, the whole preschool flashback makes me want to sob so hard. I swear the Christmas episode WILL choke you up. It’s beautiful.

Some complain that Arnold is too bland and nice but I think he’s a great role model for young kids. He’s such a sweet character, a child’s voice of reason. I’m willing to bet that adult fans other than myself heard him say “I know you’ll do the right thing” in their heads more than a few times....whether you want to hear it or not. Ha, is that ever the perfect guilt trip!!

Not to beat a dead horse, but Helga Pataki is an amazingly complex character. I love that she can be antagonistic yet sympathetic at the same time. I love how every time she does wrong, she either has to make it right or karma punishes her.(which Craig says is extremely important) She’s funny, a little crazy, insecure, and even when she is being terrible, you almost want her to win. She pretty much stole the show; it could be called “Hey Helga!” for a good chunk of the episodes.

I ship Helga and Arnold 100% with every fiber of my being. Is it unhealthy? Here’s the thing; they are both children. Children have not yet grown up into the people they will be for the rest of their lives. Children make mistakes. They grow. They mature. Arnold is already really mature for his age and he’s pure-hearted at that, which makes him the perfect influence on Helga, like we’ve been shown oh so many times in every episode that focuses on her. Is her obsession with him too selfish? Well, it can be.....but again, she corrects herself (or the show will) when she goes too far; most importantly, she also seems to recognize on her own when she’s going overboard later on in the show. (Character development!!!) We’ve seen her capable of being kind, capable of making sacrifices even if she ends up with nothing, and still be happy for Arnold. For a child with such a neglectful upbringing, that’s.....impressive. I think that’s a beautiful example of what love means. It’s also tragic that the times she is able to make him happy, she remains in the shadows so he doesn’t even know it’s her. ;_;

Many ship Rhonda and Harold but I personally prefer Rhonda and Sid. Harold and Patty seem totally MADE for each other.

The Lila-bashing in this fandom actually shocked me a little bit when I first discovered it. I think her character is fine (though her taste in men is questionable to say the least XD) Also she seems to be a Shipper on Deck for Helga; and how can you hate someone like that?

My favorite minor character is Willy, the Jolly-Olly man. He’s a jerk....cause he hates what he does for a living. Well, hello prototype Squidward. :D

Even as a person who is not fond of jazz, the music for this cartoon is incredible. Talk about capturing moods so perfectly.

Not every episode has a happy ending and I love that. That’s just how life goes sometimes. It’s so realistic but not so depressing that it’s discouraging you away from seeing more.

For a 90s kids’ show on Nick, HA! did some things a little differently; it could focus on adults and their adult problems (i.e. Oskar not being a good husband to his wife, Phil grieving over the thought of death, Mr. Hyunh wishing to reunite with his grown daughter) This was something we really didn’t see back then. It’s good we’re seeing more of it in today’s shows. Indeed, the spotlight doesn’t always need to be on a child protagonist in order to have great story-telling and resonate with an all-ages audience. And because of this, we got some fantastic adult humor too. :D

Aside from Arnold and Helga of course, Hey Arnold! has a huge cast of diverse characters from kids to adults and they are all likable and engaging. It takes quite a lot of effort and skilled writing and acting to make this happen. Even if they’re jerks, you can at least count on them to say something funny.

I have one minor complaint: Most of the kids ARE TOO MATURE. It’s so weird to think of them as nine. I feel like Arnold and his gang act like sixth-graders, the actual fifth and sixth graders act more like high schoolers....okay, even the sixth grade girls talk and act more like college kids.

If you have never checked out this animated series but love good cartoons, I suggest you do it right now. Watching it in chronological order is not particularly necessary (to enjoy it) but you may appreciate the evolution of the show better that way (especially the art and character writing).

#hey arnold #been watching it alot again and felt like writing this #helga pataki #arnold shortman #craig bartlett #good cartoon #nickelodeon #the splat

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evolutionsvoid · 7 years ago

Photo

When you travel the world for years and explore exotic environments, you are bound to get a lot of questions whenever you talk to people. You say that you are a natural historian, explain what you do and people immediately take you as a kind of explorer. Then comes the questions. I could probably rattle off about a dozen or so questions that I have heard over a million times during my travels. Be it honest inquiries or quips that have long lost their humor, they have become quite weary to hear. Out of all of them, there has been one that I have always found quite strange. "Have you seen a unicorn?" I cannot for the life of me figure out why people ask me that so much. They always want to know if I have seen a unicorn, either in a serious or joking manner. Why? What is so crazy or absurd about a unicorn? It's a horse that has a horn. True, it is quite a pretty horse, and rather elusive, but it is by no means some impossible alien being that dwells where man cannot reach. To answer that question, yes. I have seen a unicorn, several in fact. This incredibly rare, somewhat mythical, species is not all that hard to find when you know where to look. It might be a bit easier to find them if stinking poachers didn't keep shooting them and cutting off their horns. That issue aside, I have indeed seen these creatures, but not for the reasons you think. While unicorns are fascinating in their own right, my time in their territory was focused more on the creatures that walk like them. I was there for the unicons. When I write unicon, I mean it. It is not a typo or some error, I truly mean unicon. Despite the oddity of their name, unicons are totally real creatures, and quite bizarre ones at that. Their body shape is almost exactly like that of a unicorn's but everything else is radically different. While unicorns are mammalian creatures, unicons seem to be a bit more reptilian. Instead of ivory fur and flowing hair, they possess rough scales and sharp spines. Their appendages end in bladed hooves and spurs. Their tails are more like a rat's rather than a horses, and a nasty barb hides at the end of the whipping appendage. They lack the beautiful coiled horn of the unicorn and instead carry a nasty spur of bone that looks like a rotted tooth. While unicorns may be seen as symbols of purity and innocence, unicons are more like the filthy disease that floats in the scum of a putrid well.

Not only are their appearances radically different, but their behavior and ways are as well. Unicorns are strictly herbivorous, while unicons are violently carnivorous. That is not even an exaggeration, unicons are nasty little buggers when it comes to hunting and eating. They tear into food like vultures on a carcass, making an unnecessary mess out of the whole ordeal. As meat eaters, they have quite the supply of tools for downing prey. Crushing teeth, sharp spines and powerful hooves make for deadly weapons, but the real killer is their "horn." The "horn" of a unicon acts more like the fang of a viper, as it is hollow and capable of injecting venom into prey. This venom is extremely potent and kills within minutes. It seems to target the nerves, causing victims to be wracked by seizures and spasms before suffocating as their muscles shut down. As of now, there is no antidote for this powerful venom, probably since many do not wish to approach this creature, not intentionally anyway. Some may look at this horrible beast and wonder how it is capable of taking down prey or causing havoc. Clearly everyone could see that it is some horrible abomination and that they should quickly vacate the premises. Why would any prey not detect something this vile and obvious? Well, the mechanics behind the answer are not fully known, but the short response is because unicons don't walk around looking like that. Instead, these creatures disguise themselves as unicorns, and use that species' reputation as a way to get prey to drop their guard. No one fully knows how these reptilian creatures are capable of mimicking the exact appearance of a mammal, as its disguise is too perfect to be organically based. How would you explain it suddenly being covered in pure white fur and bear an ivory mane? How could something like that put on a disguise that intricate within seconds? One moment, it looks like some warped dragon and then the next it is a pristine horned horse prancing through fields of tulips and daisies. No one knows what allows them to do this. Theories range from shapeshifting or extremely intricate camouflage to mass hypnosis or clouding of the mind. I am not one who knows much about magic, but I wouldn't be surprised if these creatures used some form of it to pull off this feat. With this stunning ability to mimic the beautiful, naive unicorns, unicons primarily get their food through ambush tactics. Other woodland creatures are accustomed to unicorns and know they are no threat, so they often let them get close without any worry. Unicons prey on this trust, waltzing up to a happy deer and then viciously mauling it before it realizes it has been duped. This method also works extremely well on cultures that fantasize unicorns and view them as beautiful, magnificent creatures. A child or even a grown adult may spot the gorgeous horse and approach it in wonder and curiosity. The unicon will play the part, until it gets in stabbing range. I can't imagine how many awe-filled victims have fallen for this trap, thinking they are approaching a mythical creature before being horribly murdered. It might explain some myths that claim that unicorns kill those who are "unworthy" or "wicked of heart." Can't say it is ridiculous to assume when a majestic horse suddenly turns into a scaly monstrous creature and bites your throat out. Especially since they find that sort of thing endlessly amusing. Bad enough that unicons are vicious beasts, but they are also intelligent. While they may not have the faculties of a human or dryad, they do have quite the brain in their skulls. Unicons can set up elaborate traps, or act to lure in prey. They seem to find amusement in tricking others and have quite a good time mauling prey. In fact, unicons enjoy hunting so much that they often change their method of execution each time they down prey. The first victim may be killed with venom, while the next will be trampled to death, followed by a third that will be shredded by their teeth. Unicons seem to enjoy these different ways of killing, and seem to grow bored with repetition. This cruelty is not functional on a simple level, which indicates some form of an intelligent mind. The wolves do not laugh about their kills, and the manticore does not "change things up" to keep itself amused. These are frivolous things that only higher minds care about, a cruelty that is beyond the simple realms of survival. This can be seen when unicons decide to prey on sapient creatures like humans. They love tricking them and acting like they are majestic innocent animals so that they can lure them into a deadly trap. Some stories tell of unicons that have gotten humans to ride their backs, only to have their rough scales shred the flesh from their legs. Others have told how unicons may allow themselves to be "captured" so that they can be taken back home and slaughter the entire family. Even those who poach unicorns have dealt with these creatures, who will act wounded in order for the shooters to come within killing range. When prey is cut down, the unicons usually let out a clattering cackle before tearing into their dead (or sometimes not dead) meal. While unicons mimic unicorns for hunting purposes, that is not their only interactions with these creatures. It turns out that unicons use them for breeding, like some sort of parasite. Unicons are capable of mating with unicorns, but what is birthed will always be a unicon. They shall put on their disguises, breed, and then let their young be raised by the oblivious creatures. It seems that unicons are born with this mimicking power, making it so that their unicorn parent does not realize the monster they are raising. In time, the young will develop enough to run away from its foster parent and start up its cruel life of slaughtering and devouring. In some cases, unicons have even acted as brood parasites, swapping their young out with a unicorn's so that they could eat the foal and let the unwitting parent do the real work. It's an insidious method, but one that sadly seems to work quite well. At the end of it all, natural historians and citizens alike are puzzled by the purpose or origin of the unicons. A species that relies solely on the existence of a quite rare species seems a bit odd to form naturally. How could unicons have a healthy population when they rely on an animal that does not have a large population itself? What would happen if unicons grew overpopulated and fully consumed their hosts? What would happen then? Would they drop the ruse or keep it up? Could we reach a time in the future where unicorns have perished without our knowing, their images only surviving in the very things that slaughtered them? How could such a system function? If these beings are not natural, then where did they come from? Are they magical experiments gone awry? Are they beings crossed over from another plane? Or could they be the response to the poaching and hunting that has devastated the unicorn species? Perhaps the supposedly magical horses have grown bitter and hateful of the masses that kill them, and have grown into horrid things that would prey upon our assumptions. Who knows! I sure don't! Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

#unicorn #monster #creature #art #drawing #its a stupid name but I love it

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realm-of-dragons · 5 years ago

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Staff App - Hawks

Played by Admin Grimm

OOC:

Name: Grimm

Age: 21

Preferred Pronouns: Any!

Timezone: PST

Discord: N/A

Any topics you want added to the content warning list?: Pandemics

Second choice character?: Bakugo

IC:

Name: Takami Keigo AKA “Hawks”

Age: 27

Gender ID / pronouns: Trans Male, He/Him

OTPs, BroTPs, or NoTPS?: EndHawks baby… As far as BroTPs go I’m down for basically anything- I’m hoping for friendship between him and Rumi, but ultimately will be up for whatever has good chemistry/history in the setting of the group.

Race: Skyfolk

Appearance: Hawks is of average height and has a narrow but athletic build. Despite his small size, he holds a great deal of muscle packed into his form, and could probably crush a skull between his thighs if he wanted. He has large, terra cotta colored wings, although he mostly keeps them folded against his back nowadays. His hair is long, messy, and blond, but typically tied back into a braid.

Role: Prince Consort of the Elves, Elven Ambassador to the Skyfolk, Former Skyfolk Chieftain, and Royal Pain in the Ass.

Skills:

Hawks was once one of the fastest and most acrobatic flyers in his tribe; he still retains some of these skills, although he is limited by his injured shoulder.

Hawks can use both a sword and a bow with deadly accuracy mid flight, and has hunted all sorts of animals to feed his people.

When it comes to grounded combat, however, he is average at best with a blade. He’s still learning to compensate for his newfound lacking mobility.

He is excellent at reading others, a skill which helped him serve as chief, and is dedicated to helping others - it should be noted, however, that his communication skills are solely diplomatic. When it comes to his own personal thoughts and feelings he is garbage at communicating.

Backstory:

( i. )

There exists a species of bird which possesses exceptionally colorful tail feathers. It’s just a pheasant and it struggles to fly, spending most of its days grounded. It poses little threat, but it’s feathers are bright and vibrant and serve as a warning to would-be-predators. ‘Danger,’ they say, and though a bluff, they are quite effective. For the most part, the birds are left alone.

Sometimes(all the time), you’re that bird.

So maybe your feathers are dull, and your wings are average size at best, and you’re nothing particularly special to look at - But that’s not the point.

You’re just like that bird, because all you have to do is flash a vibrant and energized smile, and suddenly you’re the picture perfect representation of what your peers should aspire to be. Never mind your struggles, your anguish, or your pain. Never mind your lost childhood, your missing parents, and your failure at making friends. None of that matters in the slightest. You’re not angry. You’re not upset. You’re not in despair.

You smile and wave and suddenly, you’re not just some orphaned, washed out, failure of a replacement chief - suddenly, you’re a warrior. A leader. Determined. Hard working. The child prodigy who took over an entire tribe at fourteen. A man who never lets anything drag him down.

It’s better this way.

( ii. )

There’s a species of bird which is preyed upon by anything and everything in its environment. It lives in constant stress and fear of being caught out, torn apart, and eaten - or, it probably would, if it possessed the same sentience as people. It’s small, fluffy, and even as an adult, appears to be newly hatched. It spends most of its life seeking out small bugs and seeds. It hides, in hopes that a predator of its own predator will grant it just a few moments longer.

Sometimes(just today), you’re that bird.

You’ve grown into your role now, more than you thought you might - and maybe the discomfort and the emotional volatility doesn’t really go away, but you’re good at hiding it, and you think that’s good enough.

But you’re just like that bird, helpless in your own environment.

You’ve heard of dragons. You’re not stupid, you know what they are. A dragon took your parents and injured countless others, naturally you’ve been educated. But education and preparation are two very different states of being, and you’re not sure any amount of knowledge could have possibly prepared you.

You’re meeting with the other elders about something or another. You don’t really remember, after, and it’s probably not important, anyway - the sudden roar and burst of wind warns you too late to completely dodge the claws lunging your direction.

Dragon.

The aftermath is chaotic; since you’re injured, you’re responsible for leading the evacuation, not for fighting. Every part of your body aches with discontent at running away, but there’d be no point in forcing yourself into combat. It would be stupid, and no matter how chaotic your thoughts might be, you’re not suicidal. So you obey, you lead your people to safety, and you watch as another fells the beast.

After, all you can think about is that you didn’t do anything. But it matters little. The beast is gone. You’re alive. You let a healer see to your injuries.

( iii. )

Today, you’re a fledgling bird about to leave the nest for the first time.

It doesn’t matter that you’ve already learned to fly, that you’re a leader and a warrior, or that you’re more adult than any of your peers will ever be- Today, you leave.

There’s a tradition amongst your people that all must go through before becoming chief - you skipped that, before, because your predecessor expired prematurely and your tribe was desperate for leadership. You had big shoes to fill, and you filled them as needed, but now, it’s time to move on. The dragon plaguing your people is dead, and though you still loathe your lack of involvement in the affair, you’re doing your best to move on with life. That means following tradition.

It is custom for would-be-chieftains to travel for one year in solitude, surviving entirely off the land and the world around them. When they return, they are given a new title befitting of a leader, and they are welcomed with open arms back into their family.

You don’t really need to do that, all of your tribesmen already accept you as their undisputed leader, but you feel utterly useless when you remember how quickly the dragon struck you down. So you make a decision, and you place someone else in charge as interim leader as you prepare yourself for a long journey.

The thing about fledgling birds, though, is that they very rarely return to their nest of origin. You intend to return, so maybe you’re not like a fledgling at all-

When you take flight, you feel dread seep into your bones. You keep flying, but you don’t look back, for fear that any glance home may be your last.

( iv. )

You process the sound, first. Then there’s light, followed by pain, followed by delirium and the sensation of falling. You hit several tree branches as you descend - you know, because you feel the leaves and twigs rake against your flesh - but it’s difficult to determine how many. You hit the ground hard, pain exploding through your young body, and think to yourself, ‘this is it. This is death.’

Then, there’s void.

But you don’t die.

You drift in and out of consciousness for several weeks before you do finally wake. Your surroundings are unfamiliar, full of soft fabrics and lush plant life. You’re… In what appears to be a bed - you think - you know that humans and Elves keep different bedding from your own race, but you’ve never seen one quite like this. It’s soft and much larger than you’re used to, and it seems reflective of wealth and status.

Pulling yourself into a sitting position takes incredible effort, and you realize with great disdain that your wings are injured. You manage, though, and find yourself looking up at a large Elven man.

So, here’s the state of things: You were struck by lightning. You’re recovering with the Elves, in the king’s guest chambers. This man is the Elven king himself. You’re making good progress. But.

And there’s always a but.

You might never fly again.

It’s… A lot to process. And even in the following weeks, as you regain your strength and begin moving about and exploring your new surroundings, you still struggle to wrap your head around it. Flying has been second nature to you. Instinctual. Another part of your existence as a Skyfolk. You can’t fathom a life without it.

You’re a caged, flightless bird, right now. Enji is nice. Extremely nice. Nicer than he really ought to be, all things considered. You refuse to call him King Todoroki because you like pushing his buttons, and secretly, you think he likes it too. But… There’s still something missing. This isn’t right. You need to finish your journey and return home, but you can’t do that without your flight. No matter how accommodating Enji is, it still doesn’t change the fact that you’re lounging around a golden cage and you really do not belong here.

So when your wings are deemed as healed up as they’ll ever be, you start sneaking out. You can’t get off the ground. Not yet. But you hope with enough practice, someday you’ll soar once again.

( v. )

You’re a hawk, now.

You don’t believe it, personally. Hawks are fierce, powerful, and incredible flyers - you’re weak, emotional, and barely able to slip off the ground on a good day. But Enji insists you’re a hawk, and you can’t bring yourself to argue, because nobody has ever seen your real persona before and thought so highly of it.

Maybe that’s the nature of your relationship, though. It’s difficult to tell.

You’re a fighter. You keep trying no matter how many times you fall, because you hate the idea of remaining grounded. Enji is there to catch you, to patch up your scrapes and bruises, and offer encouragement in how own unique way. And finally, when you do manage to take off and soar above the trees, you feel alive. This is what you were missing.

This is who you are.

But.

You wouldn’t be here without Enji. You’d be dead, or worse - and you’re grateful, you really are, but you don’t know how to ever repay him. Soon you’ll be stable enough to continue with your life, and you’ll need to leave and go home. Enji can’t go with you. He has a kingdom to run, and you’ve accepted that. You tell yourself it’s what’s right. That it was inevitable and this is the way things are meant to be.

But.

In the months you’ve been with the Elves, you’ve learned their culture and their customs. Maybe you don’t really fit in, but you enjoy their way of life, and you love the people you’ve met. Back home, you had friends and family, sure, but there was so much pressure - For the first time in your entire life, you feel free. Freedom is terrifying. Powerful. You crave it.

You reach a crossroads. Go home and face your responsibilities or stay and learn to enjoy your life. It’s not an easy decision to make - there was so much resting on your shoulders, and maybe there still is, because you’re expected to return, sooner or later.

But.

You’re a hawk. You’re fierce, determined, and you follow your heart.

So you stay.

Extras:

Hawks can still fly, but he reaches his limit much faster due to his previous injury. He chooses to just walk most places instead, keeping his wings tucked against his back when he’s in motion to better balance the weight.

He is a little spoon at heart, but tends to be a big spoon in practice due to his absurdly large wings. He has to sleep on his stomach or his side to get comfortable.

Hawks loves fried foods, particularly fried birds; he’s been told this could be interpreted as cannibalistic, but refuses to stop eating meat anytime soon.

Keigo was his birth name, and although he is trans, he does not find discomfort with it because of dysphoria; it’s a remnant of his parents, and Skyfolk gender is wonky anyway.

In spite of that, Hawks only allows his former tribesmen to call him Keigo; he much prefers to be called Hawks.

Writing sample:

Keigo’s been in a weird sort of state lately. The injuries haven’t exactly helped his energy levels, sure, but given he’s mostly recovered, he should be able to get out of his bed and wander. And still, he’s skipping meals. Choosing to lay around. A stranger might consider him lazy. Enji doesn’t berate him for the behavior, and Keigo considers that a miracle. He doesn’t know if he could handle judgement over this melancholy. Not like he can control it, anyhow.

So they spend the days talking. Sometimes Enji reads to him. Keigo had never imagined how deep and rich the Elven culture is - he’d heard some things, in passing. The Elves were mostly isolated, before, so whatever he had heard was mostly secondhand, and, as Keigo is now learning, incorrect.

They’re sitting in bed, Keigo pressed firmly against Enji’s side. He’s been told that Elves don’t ordinarily allow this type of contact, but Keigo’s never been pushed away, and it’s one of the few things that keeps him grounded. Enji sets aside the scroll he’d been reading from and gently runs a hand over Keigo’s feathers.

“I’ve told you much about my people, but I’ve not heard much of yours.”

Keigo stiffens. “I didn’t think you’d want to learn about them.”

“I do. I don’t even know why you ended up so far from them.”

Well, that’s fair. Keigo supposes that, at the very least, he owes an explanation. That much information is hardly a concealed secret, just… Emotional? No. That’s not the right word, but he doesn’t have any better way to describe it. He shrugs. “It’s tradition for future chieftains to travel for a year, prior to taking charge. A right of passage, you know. When they return home, they take a new name, and are given the honor of leading.” He smiles softly as he speaks, the familiarity giving him some small comfort in this bittersweet reality.

Enji frowns. “You were to be chief, then?”

“Oh, yes. I was. I won’t be, now. I can’t fly.” As if to prove his point, Keigo attempts to move his left wing, the one that took the brunt of the lightning strike. It barely twitches.

“You still could. My healers don’t know much of your anatomy, your wings might still recover.”

Keigo really, truly wants to believe him, but he’s sick and tired of getting his hopes up. He’s probably not going to regain his flight. There’s no point fixating on a fantasy. Not when it only brings disappointment. He leans closer, nuzzling his face into the crook of Enji’s neck. “Please don’t… I can’t...”

“Keigo.” Enji’s voice is strong, firm, and determined. Keigo bites at his lip, muscles tensing. “You’re strong. You want to recover, and you will.” Then, after a pause, he asks, “you’re given new names when you return, as a sign of strength?”

Hesitantly, Keigo nods. “Yeah…”

“Then allow me to give you one now. You’re a fighter. You’ve shown me that much with your… Fiery attitude.”

Oh, that’s one way to phrase it.

After a nod, Enji continues. “You’re a bird of prey, fierce. Powerful. Agile, fast, cunning, and a bit of an ass sometimes, even when you’re still recovering. But you’re a creature to be revered and awed. Like a swarm of hawks.”

“Hawks…” Keigo says, the name foreign on his tongue. “My name is… Hawks.”

Maybe, just maybe, he can get used to it, in time.

#bnha rp #my hero academia roleplay #mha rp #bnha fantasy au #mha fantasy au #staff apps

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templeofulchtar · 7 years ago

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My Starscream Initiation, Part 1

I was asked to share my Starscream initiation story, so here's my attempt. It got long, so I'm going to split it into at least three posts. The first two deal with the pre-history of my journey, including some childhood recollections that seem relevant. I don't want to bore people, though, so if you're looking for information that could relate to your own initiation process (with Starscream, or any other guide), you might want to wait for Part 3. On the other hand, if you're curious about the deep background of how I came to this path, read on!

Above: A painting of my Eagle guide, done when I was four or five. They came flying from far away, Now I'm under their spell; I love hearing the stories that they tell. They've seen places beyond our land, And found new horizons; They speak strangely, but I understand. ~ Abba, Eagle

One of my earliest memories is of opening my bedroom window one night, leaning out, and whispering into the darkness. I was whispering to God, and I thought he'd hear me better with the window open. I didn't know how to pray, so I said the holiest words that I knew at the time: "thee," and "thou." I didn't know what they meant, but I knew they were sacred words because I'd only ever heard them used in readings from the Bible. I'm not sure how old I was. Maybe four? But I do remember how strongly I felt the impulse to reach out and make something beyond myself.

I've never truly doubted the existence of God, though my later religious training made me want to doubt. At one point, I remember trying to be an atheist. It would be easier, I thought, to simply not believe in God than to believe in that God, the one who seemed to consider me inferior due to the female body he had created me with, who had created animals without giving them souls, who turned people into salt pillars as punishment for minor infractions, and would cast his beloved children into a pit of eternal damnation simply for believing the wrong things. I was told that this God loved me, and I was supposed to love him back, but I couldn't; I didn't even like him!

Yet I soon discovered that I couldn't not believe. God was always just there. Maybe not exactly the God I'd learned about in Bible, but an unseen presence that hovered just beyond the limits of my senses; ineffable, yet undeniable. My experiment with atheism lasted about three days before I called it quits. I can still remember the feeling of relief that swept over me when I stopped forcing myself to disbelieve. Denying the presence that I felt took more energy out of me than trying to reconcile it with my religious training. I believe it was at that moment that I became a seeker - of the small "s" variety, of course.

Eagle Encounters

Around the same age that I was leaning out my window and whispering shy prayers into the darkness, I was given a magical kite. It was shaped like a Golden Eagle, and he was magnificently realistic. I named him Aeola - or really, Ayola, since I got the name by removing the "c" and the "r" from "Crayola." I thought it made a fine name for an Eagle, and he seemed to agree. I remember as I was falling asleep one night I had a clear mental image of my Aeola as a real eagle. He was circling above a mountain range, wings spread majestically against the sunset sky. Looking back, I think this was my first awareness of having a totem animal, or spirit guide.

Several years later, I had another brief vision involving a bird. I was a student in Catholic school by then, and was struggling with my doubts about religion versus my indelible faith in an unseen divine presence that I could only think of as God. As best as I can remember, I asked for an image of what my ideal relationship with God could look like, and the image that came to me was of a boy and a bird. The boy was shirtless, with brown skin and curly black hair that fell halfway to his shoulders, and I somehow knew that he was me. He was walking through the world with the bird flying above him, his steps guided by its unseen presence, and I have often wondered if he represents one of my past lives.

Perhaps this imagery was influenced by depictions of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, but the image really didn't feel very Christian, and the bird was definitely of the raptor variety, a hawk or an eagle. The image held such a deep sense of trust, belonging and partnership that I immediately knew that *that* was the relationship I wanted with the divine. I wanted to move through life with that same sense of divine guidance. I just didn't know how to get there, particularly under the auspices of religion as I then knew it, which emphasized dogma, rote ritual and obedience to church authority over anything that could be considered mystical.

In my late teens, another Eagle soared into my life, namely Starscream, an F-15 Eagle from Cybertron, and I fell hopelessly in love with him. It wasn't just that he was tall (25 feet tall, as a rough estimate), or handsome (though he definitely is, even if he does say so himself!), or that he's the proverbial "bad boy" that teenaged girls are known for falling for. I mean sure, it *was* all those things, but it was so much more. I identified with Starscream so intensely that even to this day, I struggle to put the feeling into words. My feelings for him have grown and deepened over time, which adds a further layer of complexity, but if it could have been summed up in a single word, that word might have been rebellion.

Above: Starscream perched on Bruticus’ shoulder, in one of my all-time favorite moments of rebellion. From “Starscream’s Brigade.”

My Rebel Seeker

Starscream was everything I wasn't. And no, I'm not referring to his abilities to shapeshift or fly, as enviable as those are. I'm talking about his courage. Yeah, I know. He's continually ridiculed for his supposed cowardice, but Starscream is brave. He speaks his mind; he questions authority - and we're talking, here, about an authority figure with a very short temper and a very large fusion cannon. He values himself. He's not afraid to dream big or to go after what he wants, even though he gets knocked down again and again. He gets punished, degraded and humiliated, yet he never gives up. He loves his life and is unafraid to live it, even in the face of death. That's courage.

That's a heroism that I could believe in, far more than the pious acts of self-sacrifice that were generally sold as heroism within the show's narrative. Starscream's struggle against Megatron was my struggle with the authoritarian forces in my own life, starting with the coldly judgmental version of God I'd been taught to believe in, all the way down through bullying teachers, bosses, and kids at school. In Starscream, I saw all the times I'd been bullied, silenced, threatened or humiliated for daring to ask questions or defy some arbitrary rule, and I wanted him to win. For both of us.

I wanted to see him break free, to find clear skies in which to soar without limits. I wanted him to be respected, appreciated, and listened to (I mean after all, he was usually right). Most of all, I wanted him to be loved. Still, this might never have become more than a particularly intense character crush if it weren't for a singular, galvanizing event that struck me, like a bolt from the blue, in the summer of 1986. That event was Transformers: The Movie.

Until that point, my love for Starscream had been a cherished indulgence, a last romp in the fields of childhood before I was forced to go out into what seemed like the cold, inhospitable and frankly boring world of adult-ness. Loving Starscream should have been safe, or so I believed. He was a character in a cartoon, and nothing truly bad ever happens in a cartoon. Sure, there might be explosions and all that, but you always see the little parachutes right after, so you know that everyone's safe. Right?

Well… not right. And if you've ever seen the '86 TF movie, you already know why.

This Ain't The Summer of Love

The truth is, I'd never realized how much Starscream meant to me. Not until that moment when I watched him die on-screen. I probably should have been expecting it. The movie had featured deaths aplenty up until that point, yet it somehow never quite occurred to me that Starscream - my Starscream - could actually die. Or that the makers of the series would be foolish enough to imagine that the show could possibly do without him (take your pick). And also that other thing: that cartoon characters you adore aren't supposed to be violently disintegrated before your very eyes.

I remember staring at the screen in numb shock. Had that really just happened? I sat through the rest of the movie in a stupor. There was something about Quintessons, the planet Junk, and a whole lot of Sharkticons being jumped, but I couldn't tell you much about the plot. I didn't bother paying attention, because in my heart I was still back on Cybertron, staring at the smoking pile of embers that had been Starscream. I had lost my ability to care about anything else, and somewhere in the midst of all this, a profound sense of grief and betrayal started to bubble up.

In some indefinable way, the rules had been rewritten. My understanding of reality - of how things were "supposed" to be - had been challenged at its very core. I now believe that was the true start of my initiatory journey, though of course I had no idea at the time. I was just crushed. And yeah, I can imagine what some people might say about all this. My grief wasn't real, because Starscream wasn't a real person.

Well, it was real. It felt as if a part of me had died with him. The subconscious mind doesn’t differentiate between "real" experiences and ones that take place in one's mind or imagination. It’s the vividness and emotional intensity of an experience which makes it seem real to the subconscious mind, not whether it meets some objective standard of reality. That’s why creative visualization works. As far as my subconscious was concerned, I had just witnessed the murder of a loved one, and my emotions responded accordingly.

My Year of Rage

Unlike someone who had *actually* witnessed a traumatizing event, though, there was no one I could talk to about it. I didn't even try with anyone who wasn't a fan, but the reactions I got from other fans were mostly unsympathetic. Starscream got what he deserved, I was told, because he was a villain. He was too ambitious, having overstepped his appointed role in life. He was a traitor. His voice was irritating. Yes, I heard 'em all. One person even compared him, memorably, to the Christian devil. (I might get back to that incident in another post - we'll see.)

Besides being heartbroken over Starscream's death, I was stung by its underlying message. It felt intensely personal. It seemed to be saying that if I spoke out, questioned authority, got too "uppity," I would be shot down. Crushed flat. And that people might even laugh and cheer over my destruction, as some members of the audience had done when Starscream was killed.

I also knew, on some level, that Starscream had been killed because of capitalism. Somebody had decided that his toy, as well as those of the other characters who died in the Movie, were obsolete. They clearly thought they could make more money by emphasizing the newer toy lines, and somehow found it necessary - or perhaps fun - to kill off all the older characters in order to do so. That was the world I was about to enter. A world in which absolutely nothing was sacred except the bottom line, and I had no idea how I would survive in such a heartless place.

I got angry. And I don't mean a garden variety fit of temper. I mean a seething, boiling pit of rage opened up in the pit of my belly and spilled over in a tidal wave of unstoppable fury. It was a lifetime of anger that I'd stored up out of guilt, and fear, and the notion that girls aren't "supposed" to get angry. Well I'd had it with that. Starscream was never shy about expressing his temper, and somehow that made it possible for me to express mine. I raged for a year.

I drove angry. I listened to angry music on my car stereo, and screamed along with the lyrics. I no longer stuffed my feelings, and did not hesitate to go off on anyone who dared to cross me. I was an absolute nightmare to be around, and my family must have wondered what had gotten into me. The truth was, I just needed to get all that out of me. I needed to let go of the bitter, toxic emotional sludge I'd been carrying, and Starscream gave me the courage to do that. It wasn't pretty, but it was needed.

For the first time in my life, I felt moderately empowered. I had a job and a car, both of which left much to be desired, but they did give me a degree of independence I'd never had before. I changed my name, choosing to go by my middle name instead of my first, and I started writing.

Naturally, I wrote about Starscream. (Continued in Part 2....)

#pop culture spirituality #spiritual initiation #starscream spirit guide #officialprydonchapter

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ramblesandmumblesofanerd · 8 years ago

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Weekly Rambles: Samurai Jack Season 5 Episode 1 Review

Warning: Lengthy Post Which Contains Spoilers

Long ago, in a bygone time, Cartoon Network, the once great master of children’s animation, unleashed an amazing show upon the world, which featured a samurai misplaced in time trying to find his way home in order to defeat a powerful foe, all while trying to survive in a future he seeks to erase. It was mature, thought provoking, powerful and full of much talent and style. But, everything changed when the ratings became a most bothersome factor. It appeared that, a the time, people had grown bored, and a movie was out of the question after the apparent poor reception of The Powerpuff Girls film. So, the series was cancelled. Eleven years later, a stir from the network caused a celebration like no other. A new season was to come, one last hurrah for the series to truly conclude on. It would offer more mature elements and an epic tale which would make the over decade long wait well worth the time spent pinning for a worthwhile conclusion. Finally, the tale of our beloved samurai will have a definite end which will hopefully involve him accomplishing a most vexing mission. But an ending cannot exist without a beginning, which made it’s debut on March 11th, 2017.

“XCII” begins with a nonhuman mother, her daughter and infant child running away from their destroyed city and the Beetle Drones that now encircle them. Just when it appears hopeless for the family, a mysterious warrior clad in black armor charges at the robots on a weaponized motorcycle, it’s face a frozen expression of rage. The warrior brutally hacks, slices and crushes the robots, even after one of them slices it’s face clean off, only to reveal it’s true face. It is Samurai Jack, the legendary warrior who once stood firm in opposition of the all powerful being known as Aku. His ragged, bearded face is contorted in pure rage as he finishes his work, only to ride off into the sunset on his new motorcycle, not stopping to check on the family as he would have done in the past. It is then revealed in what is assumed to be the new introduction for the series that fifty years have passed for Samurai Jack, but, in spite of his new beard, he does not age. The tone of his voice and the visuals presented to the audience show that Jack is currently in a state of despair and hopelessness as he comes to see that Aku’s dreaded influence spreads throughout time. Jack is at a loss as to what he should do from this point forward.

What follows is two separate stores: Jack’s current state of mind and the rise of a cult who raises seven young girls to become assassins sent to kill Jack. The later starts with a disturbing scene that would have never made it into the original animation: the actual birth of the girls. Nothing explicit is shown, thankfully, but the visual of a pregnant woman screaming as seven infants are carried to an altar made in Aku’s image is still unnerving to say the least. Their future training is no better, as the black sheep of the group, Ashi, proves to be tenacious and murderous no thanks to her mother’s cruel teachings. Not much apart from their training is shown in this episode, apart from the brief character development given to Ashi as she grows up from a curious, fanciful child to a brutal killer ready to prove her worth by any means necessary. I look forward to seeing her and her sisters in future episodes.

Meanwhile, Jack’s tale has truly taken a turn for the disturbing. As I said before, the visuals in the introduction convey a feeling of despair emanating from the samurai. The next sequence of events shows just how deep Jack’s feelings run. As he seemingly wanders aimlessly on his metal steed, avoiding any sign of further danger, Jack suffers from hallucinations of his parents and the people from his own time who have all died under the tyranny of Aku. Whether through a literal river of corpses or a hellish vision seen through flames, their words are disturbing to the samurai, as they claim he has lost his purpose, forgetting about his kingdom and his people, simply letting them die. But the worst part is an enigmatic figure shrouded in darkness and tinted by a foul green, who rides on horseback while clad in his own, hellish armor. That is when Jack runs away, screaming his head off as if he has seen the very spectre of death, towards a pillar of smoke that has haunted him just has much as his demented visions.

As Jack heads towards the smoke, he discovers a village that has been completely decimated by a single culprit, who has been waiting for the samurai ever since. That culprit is a robotic braggart called Scaramouche, an assassin sent by Aku to find Jack. The robot mocks Jack for his almost comical scowl and lack of magical sword which was apparently lost in a previous battle we have not seen in previous seasons. Jack is having none of it, however, as he eventually strikes at his foes in quick successions, showing that he still has some fight left in him. Scaramouche is thrilled, playing his “magic” flute which manipulates the surrounding rubble into forming warriors and weapons. When the flute is eventually destroyed, he starts to sing scat music which allows him to manipulate his sword through the music alone, all while brandishing a dagger/tuning fork that can destroy any opposing object by tuning itself to the object’s natural vibrations and increasing them to the point of destruction. Fortunately, Jack takes advantage of the dagger’s properties by essentially turning his own weapon into a grenade, gaining the upper-hand in the process, and finally ending the battle in a very brutal fashion. The episode then ends with this bittersweet victory and the seven fully grown and trained assassins charging out of their lair into the world with one mission: kill the samurai.

All in all, this episode was quite a rush as we watch Jack dealing with his personal demons and the assassins being raised to eventually go toe to toe with the samurai of old. You feel bad for Jack as you see him fight his inner demons and grief, and you want him to overcome his future trials with not only Ashi and her assassin sisters, but also the other enemies Aku has no doubt sent out to find his stoic enemy. Speaking of whom, there is a sense of looming dread when it comes to the Master of Darkness, as he is rarely heard and never seen in this episode with the exception of the altar the assassins were born upon, which can only mean that this final season will be building up to a final battle with the shape-shifting demon, who Genndy Tartakvosky has seemingly found a decent replacement voice actor for in the absence of the late Mako Iwamatsu. All I can say for certain is that I look forward to seeing more from Samurai Jack’s final season, which will continue this upcoming Saturday on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim at 11 PM.

In the meantime, never stop rambling, TM

Samurai Jack, it’s characters and all associated imagery belong to Cartoon Network and Adult Swim and was created by Genndy Tartakvosky. Please support the official release of both the original seasons and the new one.

#RaMoaN #samurai jack #samurai jack season 5 #review

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adoranymph · 5 years ago

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So. I wanted to keep up a momentum of positivity up given current world circumstances, which means I figured it was time I expressed and explored my love for family tropes in stories, found or otherwise.

They say you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. On a genetic level that’s indisputable, but what if apart from that, your friends are your family? I just love that stuff, personally. Actually, I love stories that examine and enrich family bonds in general, biological or not. And today, I’d like to share a few (a fair few) of them with you, if for no other reason than to try and spread around some warm-fuzzies instead of other, nastier things.

If we’re talking a specific, earliest moment that I recall having a strong reaction to a family bond, I’d have to say it’d be after reading what became my favorite installment in the Harry Potter series, Prisoner of Azkaban. I specifically remember thinking, “Aw, Harry finally has an adult in his life he can see as family.” I mean, yes, the Weasleys were already there in his corner, but Sirius Black had a more personal connection to Harry’s parents that gave this sense of him being able to connect more with the family he’d lost with what little connection he had gained that was left. And yeah, include Lupin in that too, while we’re at it.

And that love for that trope has just grown more with time with the amount of media that I’ve consumed. Found families, blood families, families struggling, families coming together, I eat that up with a big hot fudge sundae spoon. For as long as I can remember, I’ve tailored 99% of my stories around these types of plot points, perhaps with more intensity after having lost my own parents. If only because my fulfillment from it always comes from wanting to see more stories that feature family and family bond themes. Moreover, the opportunity to experience them in fictional contexts offers differing perspectives on family and what family means to others. Which I also enjoy.

With the Fate series, for example, starting with Fate/Zero, the respective relationships of father-and-son in Kiritsugu and Shirou Emiya (which honestly gave me Harry Potter and Sirius Black vibes even though theirs is a relationship far different from what’s here), and father-and-daughter in Kiritsugu and Illya (which I melt at for the sake of being a father-daughter relationship) was the initial thing that most had me immediately hooked, in addition to the concept of historic and legendary heroes from across time coming together in the modern era for a battle royale for the Holy Grail. With all of that though, and everything else great about Fate/Zero (which is, yeah, everything), you have a shoe-in for what still stands as my favorite anime. Although the family moments are minimal, not just in Zero but in its sequel Stay Night as well, the moments themselves are powerful enough to stand out and be effective in spite of that. More than that, but they’re written so well, they transcend any tropiness they would have had in the hands of another creator. Zero in particular.

I think part of that comes from how much Fate and the Type-Moon universe seem to emphasize how broken the family relationships of mages and those related to the supernatural are, which in turn makes the ones that still manage to radiate love all the more precious. Especially in terms of Kiritsugu, his wife Irisviel, and their daughter Illya. Not wanting to repeat myself too much, I’ll distill it down to this: the fact that Kiritsugu’s relationships with them is tailor-made for tragedy might, on paper, seem almost contrived, but it’s Kiritsugu’s character, and Irisviel’s too, that highlight how dearly they love each other, throwing any contrivances about it out the window.

You can read more about it in my Type-Moon post. Suffice to say, I could talk about this stuff for hours, days even perhaps, and that’s just about Kiritsugu’s family. There’re also the Tohsakas and the Matous who all have their varying degrees of screwed-uppedness that still manage to produce people who are loving and caring in their own ways, from child abandonment as a result of a skewed view of fatherhood to just straight-up abuse. Which unfortunately brings to light more twisted examples of my beloved father-daughter trope that really gets under my skin, not unlike a very cold example of this in V. A. Schwabb’s This Savage Song and the unfortunate fact that the main heroine’s father never grew to love his daughter despite his wife’s reassurances that he would. Which is just sad without having to go into much further detail.

Same with Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)/ Fullmetal Alchmeist: Brotherhood. That franchise had the audacity to take my most beloved family trope, the father-daughter relationship, and mangle it (literally as well as figuratively now that I think about it) with the arc of State Alchemist Shou Tucker and his daughter, Nina. Desperate to keep his State Alchemist license, he uses his daughter Nina and their pet dog Alexander in an alchemic experient to create a talking chimera, by fusing the two of them together into one being, making for one of the most equally horrific and tragic scenes I’ve ever seen.

And yet again, these perversions of family are no less enjoyable than those of ones built far more genuinely and conventionally on love and care. Both are satisfying in their own way, to see not only places where love lives, but also places where we know love should live but doesn’t, which makes us, the readers, or the audience, want all the more to scoop these characters up and give them the hugs they deserve.

Funimation

Not to say that Fullmetal is all about broken families. In fact, it’s more about the functioning ones that still manage to get torn apart. First you have the main plotline of the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse (Ed and Al). They committed the taboo of “human transmutation” in their attempt to resurrect their mother from the dead. For committing this taboo, they pay a heavy price: Ed, literally an arm and a leg, and Al, his entire body, leaving his soul to remain tethered in the living world by nothing more than a blood seal on a suit of armor. The brothers struggle with their efforts to set things right, and along with what happens to Nina, encounter their estranged father, though in the 2003 version the character arcs that form in those vary to those in the Brotherhood reboot.

In both versions though, their meeting Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes and his family, his wife Gracia and daughter Elecia, plays out the exact same tragic way, resulting in one of the worst sucker-punches of a death, and anyone who’s seen the show(s) knows what I mean. There’s even something of a family (if a dysfunctional one) in that of the homunculi (villainous ones in this case, unlike the homunculi in the Fate series). They might be named for the Seven Deadly Sins, but in their respective incarnations between the 2003 version and the reboot version, they develop in various ways, due in no small part to their relationships with each other. And part of what makes a family, in my experience, is nurturing the character of those with whom you are close with your own relationship to them. Hence why blood ties aren’t all that make a family, and why the concept of found families rock.

An anime I just finished recently, March Comes In Like a Lion, a pretty chill show, but still very emotionally engaging, (and chill is a high priority on what I’m looking for right now, which shouldn’t be surprising–save of course for my catching up on Season 3 of Castlevania), involves a young boy, Rei Kiriyama, roped into the fate of becoming a shogi prodigy when he loses his parents and little sister and is taken in by a shogi family as a foster son. The father was a friend of his father’s, but unlike his father, pursued the profession of playing shogi seriously, and unfortunately he was one of those fathers who meted out his affection to his children based on how good they got at the thing he was good at.

Which brings out the dark side of the found family, when Rei proves to be far more talented than either the daughter or the son of that family. He begins to see himself as “in the way”, as the daughter in particular takes her anger with her father out on him, sometimes in violent ways. This is further complicated by the fact that in his early formative years he appeared to have developed a crush on her despite the way she treated him, and continues to treat him throughout the majority of the anime.

Thankfully, where the story starts is with Rei, now in high school and now living on his own as a pro shogi player prodigy, and the relationship he’s developed with a family of threes sisters who just recently lost their mother. With them, he finds all the wonderful things a family can be, certainly the standard to which all found families should measure up to. He finds love and warmth that he’d not only been starving for, but had taught himself not to even hope to expect in his life going forward. An affirmation of where love can be found, not always with blood, and not always with where you thought you’d find it, which will never fail to be an incredibly moving thing to me.

The struggles of a young pro shogi player interlaced with the interpersonal struggles of the characters both inside and outside of the world of shogi, was incredibly satisfying on the emotional palate. I loved it, and it was definitely getting me through this difficult time at present, along with how much keeping in touch (without touching) my own family and friends has been. It’s one of those shows that shares both such dark struggle and passionate triumph and hope, and I’m glad that I chose now of all times to get around to watching it (though initially I chose it because it was the month of March, and it’s called March Comes In Like a Lion so ha ha). Regardless, while I can’t speak for the manga as I haven’t read that, I recommend the anime to anyone who’s interested, and who’s anxious right now and needs something to binge in this time of self-isolation and still get the warm-fuzzies.

Incidentally, Rei is among a small group of fictional characters, all of who have hit particularly close to home with me. He’s almost a boy version of me: his introversion, his experiences with depression (some of the thoughts he had circling in his head while struggling with that were, a lot of times, verbatim the same as the ones I’ve had, which gave me chills if nothing else), the fact that he had to learn how to “survive” school not because school itself was hard, but just because of the ostracizing social structure, that he lost his blood family and went to live with another, that he wraps himself up in something to cut off the pain that everything else causes him (with him it’s shogi, with me it’s writing)–these things all resonated with my own experiences of losing and regaining family. So much so that at this point, I’ve set aside an idea for doing a separate post on his character. You know, when I get to a few more of the hundreds of other post drafts I have on the backburner.

The shounen anime Kimestu No Yaiba takes the traditional shounen trope of “main character loses whole family to tragedy and that sets him on the hero’s journey he probably wouldn’t have taken otherwise”, and creates what I’d consider the most emotionally engaging shounen I’ve ever watched (and this coming from the same young lady who got herself hooked on Fairy Tail after putting it off for months and months because she told herself she’d never fall into the “shounen trap”). Not only is it done by the godly studio ufotable who put Fate on the map with Fate/Zero, scored by one of my most favorite composers, Yuki Kajiura, but it also features one of the most emotionally engaging shounen fights I have ever seen, and that primarily comes from its focus on the family bond between the main protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado, and his sister-turned-demon, Nezuko, and how searching in the memories of his father, he rediscovers a technique to use that helps him survive a fight that would have otherwise killed him and his sister both.

Fruits Basket (both the original anime adaptation from 2001, and the the reboot coming out now) takes the concept of a family curse and examines how that affects certain of its members, and the ripple effect that comes from one outsider–a young girl grieving the death of her mother–deciding to befriend him through that anime “quirk of fate”. The curse itself being certain members of the family turning into animals of the Chinese zodiac when under stress or…hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Classic. And at first, yeah, is it a bit silly, but then you see how it’s affected those members of the family born with the Zodiac spirits of this curse. Like how one of them has to pretend that he isn’t his mother’s son, because his mother was horrified by the fact that the first time she held her child, he turned into a rabbit, and so, to ease her suffering, she had her memories of her having giving birth to him erased. Which gives credence to the idea that any idea can work, as long it’s executed well. Whether an idea unique will mean nothing if the idea itself is executed poorly.

And the criminally underrated anime film, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, tells a fantasy story of a young woman who follows the emotional arc of discovering what it means to be a mother. Maquia, one of a race of immortal people called the Iorph, is separated from the rest of her kind after a mortal human kingdom attacks them for their power. Alone upon her escape from capture, she comes across a mortal human family who’re all dead, save for their newborn baby boy, and she takes it upon herself to raise the boy as his mother. Along the way she learns what it means to be a mother, the pain that comes with watching a loved one grow old and die and leaving you behind. To say that I felt things in that story would be grave understatement. And it comes from a place of genuine familial emotion: the film’s director and writer, Mari Okada, drew from her own relationship to her own mother.

Even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the idea of the found family and the idea of family in general isn’t lost on its writers, particularly in regards to Guardians of the Galaxy, which touches not only families, but family abuse. Never mind that it involves people from alien worlds, cyborg assassins, and the like, it still manages to have a very human resonance. And of particular note is a part of Natasha Romanov’s character arc, and how much she had come to view the Avengers as a family, while at the same time trying to repay the debt of all the lives she’d taken by saving lives instead. Which results in interactions like the very touching sort of brother-sister banter between her and Steve Rogers (that’s right, a male-female pair I don’t actually ship).

In the world of books, The Girl at Midnight, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone both involve found family subplots and explore those in their own creative ways.

We have Echo in The Girl at Midnight, raised by a group of bird-ish people called Avicen, and she gets to live in the attic of a library (lucky), and play a little with the magic she otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to if she hadn’t ended up adopted into her situation. I’m nearly finished with the sequel, The Shadow Hour, and we did get a glimpse of the life she had before: she’d run away from her birth mother, who was an abusive drunk to her daughter, which hurts on the very fundamental fact that we are born in the world with the idea hardwired in there somewhere that our mothers are supposed to love us unconditionally, and certainly never hurt us. It hurt me in my own way too, as my father was an alcoholic, and while he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t abusive either, just more of a lost soul, I suppose, which can carry its own problems trying to function as a parent.

While I wasn’t too keen on the vision Echo has of her past characterizing her mother as the sort of abusive drunk you’d find…eh…like, in an amateur play, it could be argued that the idea was that the vision was based on her memory of her mother, and thus her perception of her at the time. Which was yeah, a mother who spouted nothing but verbal abuse at her daughter and hit her, and for seemingly no reason. And later on, when she discusses it with one of her close friends, not only does her friend tell her that it’s not from whom we are born that defines us, but also that even if her mother had her complicated reasons for why she was the way she was as a parent, the simple fact that’s irrelevant, and there’s never a “good” or “justifiable” reason to hurt a child. That it’s one’s own makes it all the more saddening.

For Daughter of Smoke and Bone, we have another eccentric waif in Karou, raised by a family of people called “chimaera” (not like the ones from Fullmetal Alchemist, these are a mishmash of different animal parts, sometimes human parts too). It too involves a complicated sort of father-daughter relationship that unfortunately seems to have ended in tragedy (I’ve only finished book one), as the slowburn story meticulously reveals that our heroine is being hidden to keep her safe from a threat that stems from a grand, epic, interdimensional war between chimaeras and angels. Last I saw, it looked like the father figure was probably dead, and unfortunately he and Karou hadn’t parted the last time they saw each other on the…best of terms, to put it mildly. Like with Kiritsugu Emiya’s estrangement from his daughter Illya in Fate, this one too hurts in that same, “what could have been, but never will be” way.

Then you’ve got a graphic novels like Saga, written by Brian K. Vaughn and illustrated by Fiona Staples (published by Image Comics), which, again, I was drawn to merely on the premise of it being about a male and female of two different alien races on opposing sides going AWOL together and ending up having a baby daughter along the way. I haven’t got too much into graphic novels aside from this and Monstress (also published by Image Comics), written by Marjorie Liu and illustrated by Sana Takeda (which deals with dead mother and mother-daughter issues against a very dark fantasy setting), but from what I’ve read so far, that premise has delivered as far as emotionally anchoring me to the story is concerned. Couple forced to flee for their lives + newborn introduced to the situation = my interest.

And that’s basically what it boils down to, beyond merely it’s emotional fulfillment for me. Apart from the family and friends I have found in my own life, it’s one other way I can regain something of what I lost in the passing of my parents. Even more than that, it’s a way for me to process it, after initially refusing to process it at all, especially when it comes to my own writing. In some ways, the novel I’m currently working on, the crux of which involves a father-daughter relationship, is a wish fulfillment of my own for the difficult months I spent with my father, between when my mother died and then when he himself died. Which even here is something that’s difficult for me talk about so straightforwardly, so the catharsis I get from writing about these things is far more valuable and useful to me. Even the deconstructional value of the dysfunctional versions of any parent-child relationship, not just father-daughter ones.

Exploring these themes both in writing and reading nurtures feelings and reinforces how important those feelings are. Found families in particular can be a lense through which we can begin to view people who are not related to us by blood still as kin, if only for the fact that we all are human. Family themes engender hope, even in the case of dysfunctional families, and it’s moving to see families who work to earn each other’s love as well as love unconditionally, depending on circumstances. Especially when death and danger threaten to tear those bonds apart, only for those bonds to emerge stronger than ever.

In times like these, don’t forget those you care about the most, or even those who you know who don’t receive as much care as they should, and reach out if you can (and thanks to the internet, reaching out remotely isn’t out of the question). The simple act of looking out for someone else is one of the most beautiful things about being human in my opinion, more so that it’s not even an exclusively human thing, which serves to draw we humans closer to each other. It’s a precious thing, and losing that would be a tragedy indeed in the long run. So as I press onward with this thing called living from day to day, I’ll keep seeking new family dynamics that inspire me with joy, with sorrow, and with hope. Particularly the hope that I’m not the only one who finds value in seeking these out in stories far and wide, and learning from them, and taking them sincerely to heart.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure I’m keeping up with the currently running Kakushigoto, incidentally an anime about a father who draws adult manga and tries to keep the nature of his profession a secret from his young daughter. Hijinks and heartwarmingness I’m sure are in store. In the meantime, also enjoy this very emotional Fullmetal Alchemist AMV, as well as a revisit to the “Shelter” music video by Porter Robinson. Because fathers and daughters.

Family Bonds So. I wanted to keep up a momentum of positivity up given current world circumstances, which means I figured it was time I expressed and explored my love for family tropes in stories, found or otherwise.

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patheticphallacy · 5 years ago

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This is a tag I always see making its rounds on YouTube and in the blogsphere, and while I don’t do many tags anymore (that aren’t related to music, you can pry the Playlist Book Tag from my cold, dead hands) I saw a few really great takes on the tag and looked at the questions and figured this is one for me!

A little about my reading history:

Since April of 2018, I’ve found myself enjoying reading more than I have since around 2013 when I first joined the book community. It’s become a lot more personal and just reading on a whim, not hesitating to DNF and leave things half-read until I’m interested in the book again. My memories of what I read is a lot stronger, even though I’m reading more.

At this point in the year I’ve read 170 things, mostly manga and comics, which I’m honestly really happy about as they make me happiest as I read them. That also means I have a lot to choose from in my answers.

Without further ado: the questions!

1) BEST BOOK YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2019?

Okay, so a lot of my top books happen to be horror, and I promise you that’s purely accidental.

The Elementals by Michael McDowell: 80’s horror where two families journey to their Summer houses after the death of one of the matriarchs and find themselves at the hands of not just the elements, but forces that reside in the land.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell: A gothic told across three different points of view centred around a widow who travels to her late husbands estate and is tormented by strange wood carvings who seemingly move by themselves.

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl: A year after the death of her boyfriend, a teenager journeys out to visit her estranged friends, only for them to end up stuck in a time loop repeating the same day until they can come to a unanimous decision on which one of them deserves to live.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson: Horror classic where four people travel to Hill House and experience strange hauntings that begin to send them mad. Also highly recommend the Netflix show!

Teen Dog by Jake Lawrence: The coming-of-age graphic novel with anthropomorphic animals you never knew you needed. Full of innocent existentialism and themes of growing up!

2) BEST SEQUEL YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2019?

They aren’t sequels, but these are my favourite volumes in longer series! It counts! They are all follow ups to previous volumes!

Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 9 by Hiromu Arakawa: If there was a Connie has to go more than 5 posts without mentioning FMA challenge, I would lose. Literally the best possible conclusion to this series, it broke my heart.

Haikyuu!! Volume 2 by Haruichi Furudate: My review for this on Goodreads was literally just ‘Oikawa AND Nishinoya?! In one volume?! I’m having a crisis!’ which sums up me reading this whole series.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Volume 3 by Hideyuku Furuhashi: Volume 2 of this series was an absolute goddamn mess but this volume? Wow. My review if you want to read me lose my mind. Some spoilers for extra content and some characters, but it’s not really overly spoiling plot points.

No.6 Volume 5 by Atsuko Asano: I have gone on so many spiels to my best friend about how amazing this series is. It honestly deserves recognition for being a very thought provoking and character driven dystopian, the character development is truly a work of art and I wish I could write a world and dynamics as well as Atsuko Asano does.

3) NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET, BUT WANT TO?

I can’t really give much information on these seeing as I haven’t read them, so sorry everyone!

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia: I confess, I am getting this because of Gabriel’s artwork. I’ve been a huge fan for a while now, so it just felt right to have this in my collection, especially considering I want to learn more about the Titans.

Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner: Very mixed reviews on this one, but oh well!

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman: Everyone and their mother is talking about this book, honestly.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling: It’s like a space survival story but with these weird zombie creatures? I’ll be going for the audiobook with this one.

4) MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR?

I made a whole post about this that I worked very hard on so please check it out, but I guess I’ll include the only three I’ve been able to pre-order.

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab: This is the sequel to City of Ghosts, a middle-grade horror story I really love, and I’m looking forward to this one even more as it’s set in the catacombs of Paris!

Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker: Several people have described this as having some of the best mental health rep in young adult fiction, so I’ll be reading this for my dissertation that I’m starting in January.

The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen: I reallllly love the podcast this is based on (The Bright Sessions, also created by Lauren) and Adam and Caleb are my absolute favourites, so this book is my JAM.

5) BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT?

BOY DO I HAVE A LOT OF THESE. one of the cons of reading so much is that I end up being disappointed by significantly more books than others do, which sucks, but I honestly don’t find myself hating the reading experience. Even if i hate the book, for me, tearing it apart can become fun!

Slam Volume 1 by Pamela Ribon: I love roller derby, but the characters and the lack of narrative in this volume really didn’t do it for me. Maybe if more time was spent making sense of plot at the start I’d have enjoyed it, but there were so many time jumps I stopped caring.

It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne: One day UKYA readers are gonna have to sit down and properly talk about how the first maybe 5 years of the decade were spent crowning titles and writers as the leads of UKYA despite the fact that their books aren’t really good. They contain thinly-veiled misogyny, really bad writing that uses chat speak in-text as if it’s normal, stereotyping of characters (they really love the bitchy mean girl trope) and what the kids would call racism that doesn’t explicitly state it’s racism, like, say, dropping slurs or having outwardly racist beliefs, but when a character says someone ‘might be Asian or Jewish’ and then laughs about it and never addresses it again, you kind of guess it’s some kind of internalised racism nobody feels comfortable addressing.

Trouble by Non Pratt: SEE ABOVE, only this one has the most terribly written step-incest subplot that never properly gets resolved or treated with the disgust it deserves!

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne: Weird possessive vibes, references to stalking, and shitty love triangles. This received the best rating of the bunch (3), but the general disappointment I feel is at the continued inclusion of uncomfortably possessive male love interests dehumanizing and treating women like they are better seen not heard in romance fiction. Tessa Dare doesn’t treat me like this!

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham: This one is less hate, more just disappointment. I was so bored reading this, honestly, it feels unbearably long, and the romance is so unneeded and dull.

6) BIGGEST SURPRISE?

The Unsound by Cullen Bunn: I’ve learnt that my opinion on generally negatively rated comics and graphic novels is going to completely differ. This is very surreal, with a lot of graphic self harm and violence, and will definitely not be for everyone, but I very much enjoy it!

Sweet Blue Flowers Volume 1 by Takako Shimura: I literally heard about this, ordered the first volume day-of, and then read it as soon as it arrived and loved it. It’s predominantly a slice-of-life/romance following sapphic teenage girls!

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan: Everytime I think of this I feel soft. For a fantasy this is very easy to read, with snappy dialogue and a lot of wit from our main character. What surprised me most, however, was how deep and introspective it got exposing the fears of our main character, something not enough portal fantasies spend time doing, and I’m really grateful to have read this book!

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay: Can you really be surprised if you go into a book with no expectations? I knew vague details about plot, and a brief allusion to a dollhouse in a review I happened to scroll past, and I ended up loving this.

Lazaretto by Clay McLeod Chapman: This is an absolutely horrifying comic about a flesh eating virus that breaks out during the first few weeks of college and sends the campus into complete lockdown. It’s honestly tragic, and does not have a happy ending, but I love it? I usually hate endings that are bad for our main characters, but everything about this just really wrapped me in a blanket- horrified me, sure, yet it was weirdly comforting.

The Past and Other Things that Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson: Again, I saw one person praise this book and listened to the audiobook immediately after and really enjoyed it. It’s very moving with some main characters that will test your patience but you’ll end up loving.

7) FAVOURITE NEW AUTHOR?

Paul Tremblay and Michael McDowell!

8) NEWEST FICTIONAL CRUSH?

Kirie in Uzumaki by Junji Ito! Makoto in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes! Charlotte Holmes in A Study in Charlotte! I’m noticing these are all women, which is kind of on brand for me.

9) NEWEST FAVOURITE CHARACTER?

Seeing as all my crushes are on women, I’ll try and pick some other favourites here! I’ve really fallen in love with Tensei Iida in My Hero Academia and eternally love Thirteen, Teen Dog in Teen Dog, Shion in No.6 (the character development!!!!), and basically the whole cast of The Avant-Guards by Carly Usdin! Tom in the Memoirs of Lady Trent series has really grown on me after book one, too.

10) BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY?

BOY. I cry a lot. I cried reading Winnie the Pooh, which I finally picked up all the stories of earlier this year; Neverworld Wake; the Save Me Webtoon, a great webcomic based off of the BTS music video continuity; I Want To Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino, which beat me over the head with a frying pan while I was distracted. Sheets by Brenna Thummler didn’t make me cry but it did make me incredibly sad.

11) BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY?

A lot of what I read makes me happy! There’s Super Fun Sexy Times by Meredith McClaren, a small collection of 5 stories based on the sex lives of different superheroes/villains/etc.; My Love Story by Kazune Kawahara which makes me eternally happy and soft every time I pick up a volume; In Other Lands, which, while sad at times, is also very funny and has my exact brand of humour; and there’s the Haikyuu!! manga series, which I love and adore and all the characters are hilarious, even while being serious.

12) FAVOURITE BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTATION?

I haven’t really seen any? Does Boys Over Flowers count if I haven’t read the manga OR finished the show yet? Either way, Boys Over Flowers is great and so melodramatic. If you push through the drama and very strange and problematic behaviour, it’s honestly got a cute romance between two tsundere people and enough stupid hair to giggle at.

13) FAVOURITE REVIEW YOU’VE WRITTEN?

LOOOADS! I’m very proud of my reviews this year, and it seems like a lot of them are horror!

my review of haunting of hill house by shirley jackson

my review of a head full of ghosts by paul tremblay

my review of the elementals by michael mcdowell

my review of meddling kids, where i discussed harmful stereotypes and tropes within horror fiction

three horror reviews: this is not a test, the silent companions, uzumaki

my review of poetry book shame is an ocean i swim across, where i discuss body image issues

14) MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK YOU BOUGHT THIS YEAR?

Other Words For Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin! It’s really pretty and has beautiful pink sprayed edges, and I absolutely love the owl in the background. I think the mix of pink and gold on the cover is so striking, too, it really is a book that stands out.

15) WHAT BOOKS DO YOU NEED TO READ BY 2020?

I actually have a Summer 2019 TBR if you want loads of information on everything I plan on reading.

However, other than all the books I kind of have to read for my first semester back at University, I really want to read Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz and When the Truth Unravels by RuthAnne Snow.

What would you pick for these questions? Please let me know in the comments if you made a post of this tag, I’d love to read them!

Thank you for reading!

If you liked this post, consider buying me a coffee? Ko-Fi.

I also currently have a GoFundMe set up to help fund my third year of University, so any stray pound helps ❤

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